About the data
Where it comes from | Who produces it | The measures we use |
Amendments to the data | Population figures | The data threshold | Seasonality in crime | City of London data
Where it comes from
This website uses data from 'Crime in England and Wales 2005/2006' (incorporating minor amendments to the data that have been made on an ongoing basis to the recorded crime database since that date).
Published in July 2006, it brings together police recorded crime figures with data collected by the British Crime Survey (BCS) to provide a comprehensive account of the latest patterns and trends in the main high-volume crimes.
The recorded crime data is provided by 43 police forces throughout England & Wales, who are required to supply the Home Office with monthly figures for all of the Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs) in their police force area.
Broadly defined as 'your local authority', your local CDRP is a partnership of police, local councils, and other local agencies and organisations who have banded together - under the statutory requirements of the Crime & Disorder Act 1998 - to develop and implement strategies for tackling crime and disorder in your local area. (For more about CDRPs, see the Home Office website.)
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Local area recorded crime data for 2004/05 for several areas can be found on the Neighbourhood Statistics website. Statistics are shown from the following police force areas: Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, West Midlands, West Yorkshire, Devon & Cornwall, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Cleveland, Durham, Northumbria and the Metropolitan Police.
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Who produces it
The annual publication is compiled by the Home Office's independent Research Development & Statistics Directorate (RDS), whose skilled specialist staff include statisticians, researchers, economists, communication professionals and scientists. All work together to inform and advise Parliament and the public, as well as Home Office colleagues.
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The measures we use
We use two primary measures to assess the patterns and trends in crime across England & Wales. Both are essential, and should not be seen in isolation.
Police recorded crime figures
An important indicator of police workload, police recorded crime figures provide a good measure of trends in well-reported crimes, and can also be used to analyse local crime patterns.
Police recorded crime figures do not provide the most accurate measure of crime, as they are susceptible to people's reluctance to report some types of crime (such as sexual offences, or those they consider too trivial), and to changes in the way police have been asked to record crime. (See 'Changes in how police record crime'.)
The British Crime Survey (BCS)
The BCS gives a more complete estimate of crime, because it asks people about their actual experiences - thus covering crimes that do not get reported to or recorded by the police. It is also not affected by changes in how police record crime.
As a survey of private households, the BCS is limited to the offences it covers and the victims within its scope, and cannot provide an assessment of crime trends at the local level.
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Amendments to the data
Police forces revise their figures on an ongoing basis as further information becomes available, and these amendments are incorporated onto the recorded crime database.
These changes are generally not significant, but this does mean that data for some Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs) may not exactly match the CDRP data that was published on the website of the Research, Development & Statistics Directorate in July, along with the annual crime statistics publication.
See also Missing data
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Population figures
The population figures we have used on this website with the recorded crime statistics have been provided by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) and are the mid-2004 estimates.
They refer to the entire population of England & Wales (adults and children) and - in the case of each local area - to the entire population of each Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP).
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The data threshold
When you see an asterisk (*) among the figures, it signifies that there were fewer than 3 recorded offences in this crime type.
This threshold has been decided using disclosure control standards provided by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), to protect the privacy of individuals who might be identified by the figures in small areas.
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Seasonality in crime
The recorded crime data shown on this website has not been seasonally adjusted, so it is affected by short-term effects associated with the time of year.
These effects can obscure other movements in the data, making it difficult to assess the underlying trend.
Each crime type follows a different pattern, and some show no significant seasonal effects at all.
- Domestic burglary, for example, peaks in the winter and falls in the summer, making the winter months typically above trend. To compare crime levels in July with crime levels in December would be misleading and will not give a true indication of the longer-term trend.
- Violent crime is typically above the trend in the summer months and falls again in the winter.
- The pattern for theft is different for different types of theft. Pedal cycle theft peaks in the summer while vehicle theft peaks in the winter.
Alongside seasonal factors there are other effects that can influence the recorded crime data.
Some effects do not necessarily occur in the same month each year or even in the same location, e.g. music festivals, carnivals, bank holidays.
There will also be one-off extreme values in the data that have identifiable causes, like demonstrations or riots, or an offender admitting to a string of offences.
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City of London data
The London region comprises two areas:
The City of London - as distinct from the many boroughs that comprise the rest of London - has a small resident population and a high transient population who come into the City solely for work and leisure.
It is therefore misleading to compare crimes per head of the population in the City of London with the data from elsewhere in London.
To a lesser extent, other city centres are also affected by these factors.
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