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Latest figures from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimate that there were 8.5 million crimes experienced by households and resident adults in the previous 12 months, based on interviews with a nationally representative sample in the year ending June 2013. In addition, the CSEW also estimated that there were 0.8 million crimes experienced by children aged 10 to 15 resident in the household population.
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The headline estimate for crimes against households and resident adults was down 7% compared with the previous year’s survey. This is the lowest over the history of the survey, which began in 1981, and is now less than half its peak level in 1995.
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The police recorded 3.7 million offences in the year ending June 2013, a decrease of 5% compared with the previous year. This is the lowest comparative level since 2002/03 when the National Crime Recording Standard was introduced to bring greater consistency to crime recording.
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Victim-based crime accounted for 83% of all police recorded crime (3.1 million offences) and fell by 6% in the year ending June 2013 compared with the previous year.
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Other crimes against society recorded by the police (400,156) showed a decrease of 8% compared with the previous year.
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In the year ending June 2013, 230,335 fraud offences were recorded. This represents a volume increase of 21% compared with the previous year and should be seen in the context of a move towards the centralised recording of fraud by the police.
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Within victim-based crime, there were decreases across all the main categories of recorded crime compared with the previous year, except for theft from the person (up 8%), shoplifting (up 1%) and sexual offences (up 9%). The latter increase is thought to be partly a ‘Yewtree effect’, whereby greater numbers of victims have come forward to report historical sexual offences to the police.
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There were an additional 1.0 million offences dealt with by the courts in the year ending March 2013 (the latest period for which data are available), which are not included in the police recorded crime figures. These cover less serious crimes, such as speeding offences, which are dealt with no higher than magistrates courts.