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News

News Archives: Index

October 7, 2010: Probation Set For Industrial Action

October 5, 2010: Turning Prisoners Into Taxpayers

October 4, 2010: Murder Changes Now In Force

September 20, 2010: Probation Programmes Face Cuts

August 24, 2010: Victorian Poor Law Records Online

August 10, 2010: Justice Job Cuts

July 28, 2010: Prison Violence Growing

July 22, 2010: Police Numbers: Latest Figures

July 22, 2010: New Jurisdiction Rules

July 16, 2010: CCJS On Prison And Probation Spending Under Labour

July 15, 2010: Latest Statistics On Violent And Sexual Crime

July 15, 2010: Latest National Crime Figures

July 15, 2010: New Chief Prisons Inspector

July 14, 2010: Hard Times Ahead For Prisons: Anne Owers

July 14, 2010: Prison Does Not Work: Ken Clarke

July 13, 2010: Criminal Justice Reform: Sentencing and Rehabilitation

July 13, 2010: Criminal Justice Reform Priorities

July 12, 2010: What Price Public Protection, Asks Probation Chief Inspector

July 12, 2010: NOMS has failed, says Napo

July 10, 2010: IPCC To Investigate Death of Raoul Moat

July 9, 2010: Women In Prison: New Report

July 9, 2009: Unjust Deserts: Imprisonment for Public Protection

July 8, 2010: Police Search Powers Change

July 7, 2010: Make 'Legal High' Illegal, Says ACMD

July 2, 2010: Failing Children In Prison

July 2, 2010: Police Buried Under a Blizzard of Guidance: HMIC

July 1, 2010: Freedom To Change The Law?

June 30, 2010: A New Outlook On Penal Reform?

June 30, 2010: Revolving Door Of Offending Must Stop, Says Clarke

June 30, 2010: Ken Clarke: Speech on Criminal Justice Reform

June 29, 2010: No More Police Targets

June 26, 2010: Family Intervention Projects Questioned

June 25, 2010: Cutting Criminal Justice

June 24, 2010: Napo on Sex Offenders Report

June 23, 2010: Closing Courts: The Cuts Begin

June 23, 2010: Strategy To Tackle Gangs

June 15, 2010: Courts and Mentally Disordered Offenders

June 8, 2010: Working With Muslims in Prison

June 1, 2010: Your Chance To Nominate a QC

July 15, 2010: Latest National Crime Figures

The latest National Statistics on crime in England and Wales are released today. They are based on interviews from the British Crime Survey (BCS) and crimes recorded by the police in the financial year 2009/10.

Each source has different strengths and weaknesses, but together they provide a more comprehensive picture of crime than could be obtained from either series alone.

The key points from the latest figures are:

  • Overall, there were an estimated 9.6 million crimes as measured by the BCS in 2009/10, a fall of 9% compared with the previous year’s survey (10.5 million crimes).

  • There were 4.3 million crimes recorded by the police in 2009/10, an 8% decrease compared with 2008/09 (4.7 million crimes), with decreases in most crime types.

  • Both sources are consistent in showing marked falls in vehicle crime (BCS vehicle related theft down 17% and police recorded vehicle crime down by 16% compared with the previous year).

  • While the 9% fall in domestic burglary from the 2009/10 BCS was not statistically significant (compared with the 2008/09 survey) it is broadly in line with the 6% reduction recorded by the police between 2009/10 and the previous year.

  • There was a 28% fall in BCS theft from the person between the 2008/09 and 2009/10 surveys. However, this follows a rise of 25% the previous year and the estimated number of thefts from the person is now at a similar level to that seen in recent years. In contrast, police recorded theft from the person showed a 3% increase between 2008/09 and 2009/10, this being the first increase since 2005/06.

  • The apparent 1% fall in the level of violent crime between the 2008/09 and 2009/10 BCS was not statistically significant. Police recorded violence against the person fell by 4% between 2008/09 and 2009/10, with falls in both violence with injury (down 5%) and violence without injury (down 3%). Both BCS violence and police recorded violence against the person offences have shown a downward trend since 2006/07.

  • The overall sanction detection rate was 27.8% in 2009/10, a slight fall from the 28.4% recorded last year. Overall, there were 1.2 million crimes solved by sanction detections in 2009/10.

The BCS estimates that the risk of becoming a victim of crime in 2009/10 was 21.5%, a fall from 23.3% in 2008/09. This figure is the lowest since the BCS started in 1981 (27.7%) and down from a peak of 39.7% in 1995.

Long-term trends show that BCS crime rose steadily from 1981 before peaking in the mid-1990s. BCS crime then fell sharply until 2004/05 before levelling off until subsequent falls between the 2006/07 and 2007/08 surveys and in the latest year.

The statistics on violent and sexual crime are also available.