Crime and victims

Crime statistics

We closely measure and analyse crime statistics to gauge crime trends, work out whether our initiatives are improving crime rates and to measure crime's impact on individuals and society.

How we measure crime

Police records are one data source we use to measure crime rates. However, these statistics alone don’t paint an accurate picture because many crimes are not reported to police.

Since 1982, we’ve analysed the annual British Crime Survey (BCS) in conjunction with police recorded crime figures to get a more accurate picture of UK crime, and we publish all the figures in the annual report: Crime in England and Wales.

Generally speaking, the BCS is regarded as the most reliable indicator of long-term crime trends, because it asks people about their actual experiences of crime. It’s also useful for gauging public feeling since it measures how much people fear crime and how they try to avoid it.

However, we provide both figures, since the police recorded crime numbers provide accurate information about all the crimes reported to police.

A snapshot of crime in 2006-07

Here are some significant crime statistics from our most recent research, Crime in England and Wales 2006-2007:

• the risk of being a victim of crime is 24% - significantly lower than the 40% recorded in 1995
• crime has fallen by 42% since 1995, meaning that 8.4 million fewer crimes took place during that time than would have had rates never fallen
• domestic burglary and all vehicle thefts have fallen by huge percentages (59% and 61% respectively) since 1995
• crime is down in most categories

See for yourself

For more detailed information, download and read Crime in England and Wales 2006/07.