British crime stats: the numbers are falling, you know that, right?

[matgb]

Right, I'm off home and then probably into Westminster, but before I go, greyarea:

One of my biggest bugbears are people - generally fairly rational people in most ways - who bleat on about how the UK is going to shit, how it's not like it was in the old days, how there's no respect for anyone any more. Proof for this is normally that crime is shooting up; you can barely leave your house without some hoodie kicking your head in, and once you make it back from A&E you'll probably find your house burgled and your car missing. And a big shit in the middle of the carpet.

There's huge disagreement on how to handle this massive rise, of course, but the fact that there is a rise is almost universally agreed on.

Except - well, crime isn't actually going up. Overall, crime has been dropping for over a decade. Chances of being burgled are through the floor, as is vehicle crime.

It comes complete with links, sources and explanations of the falling crime numbers, well worth a good read.

Comments

[eldar.livejournal.com]

The cynics amongst us might say that crime numbers are dropping because the way that crimes are counted has been changed. Or because people aren't reporting crimes any more because they're scared that the Hoodies will beat them up on the way to the police station. Or that the police will shoot them on their way to the police station.

After all, they're only statistics.... and who needs them when you've got such trustworthy standard-bearing objective publications as the Daily Mail, the Express, and the red-tops around to tell us the real truth?

[matgb]

The cynics would be ignoring that the British Crime Survey has used the same methodolgy since it was set up in the 1980s, and is a very good measure of actual crime, not reported crime.

Which, y'know, is the point of his article ;-)

[eldar.livejournal.com]

Oh, you mean I'm supposed to be looking at the statistics before coming to a conclusion based purely on conjecture, hearsay, and a few paranoid headlines? Oops. My mistake!