Details of the latest British Crime Survey, which however does not cover business crime; and a designing out crime expert comments.
The UK suffers from 855 muggings every day, the 2001 British Crime Survey suggests. This latest BCS by the Home Office, which covers the year 2000, shows crime has fallen by a third between 1995 and 2000, with burglary and vehicle-related thefts falling by 39 per cent and violence by 36 per cent. The survey adds: ‘Between 1999 and 2000 there has been the largest ever annual decrease in BCS crime (12 per cent) with large falls for burglary (17 per cent), vehicle thefts (11 per cent) and violence (19 per cent).’ The authors add: ‘it is possible that the nature of crime is changing, and that crimes of the future will less concern the familiar household crimes ‘ such as burglary or vehicle theft ‘ but rather new types of crime involving fraud, or the internet, or personal crimes such as stalking and sexual abuse’. Yet the BCS goes on to admit that it does not cover fraud or crimes against commercial or public sector organisations. The BCS is based on a survey of 8,985 adults rather than police records. Fewer than half of all crimes are reported to police as crimes – about 45 per cent, the BCS suggests. What does the survey say of interest to the security and CCTV manager’ <br>
– Fears about crime are ‘higher among those living in high crime areas, recent victims, those who consider it likely they will be victimised and those who are socially or economically vulnerable?. <br>
– In 2001, 13 per cent of those replying said that they felt ‘very unsafe’ walking alone in their area after dark and another 20 per cent felt ‘a bit unsafe’.<br>
– in England and Wales in 2000, 3.4 per cent of households were burgled, rising to 7.9 per cent in ‘areas with high levels of physical disorder’. Some 6.8 per cent of vehicle-owning households had items stolen from a vehicle, 1.8 per cent had a vehicle stolen, and 0.5 per cent of adults were mugged.<br>
– in 2000, more than one in four people were either a victim of a personal crime or live in a household where a household crime took place; to be exact, 26.8 per cent.<br>
– Victims are assessing the crimes against them as more serious; researchers do not know whether the reason is that victims are becoming less tolerant of crime, or that what crime there is, is indeed more serious.<br>
– The 2001 BCS estimates some 2,618,000 violent crimes in 2000, representing 20 per cent of all BCS crime, and including 276,000 robberies and 36,000 snatch thefts – a total of 312,000 muggings, or 855 a day. <br>
After a steady rise in crime between 1981 and 1991, and a sharp rise from 1991 to 1993, crime has levelled off since, the BCS claims. Similarly, the survey states that between 1995 and 2000 all violent crime fell by 36 per cent, after a rise in the 1980s and early 1990s.
You can download The 2001 British Crime Survey, statistical bulletin 18/01, from the Research, Development and Statistics Directorate,
That victims feel the crimes they suffer are more serious could be a sign of what designing out crime expert Greg Lawrence calls ‘competitive struggle’. Greg, Tesco’s Group Loss Risk Manager, says: ‘I would be surprised if competitive struggle isn’t an element.’ He explains that if the opportunities to carry out crime are reduced without affecting the criminals’ desire to offend, there will be fewer offenders (and even fewer crimes) but the nature of those remaining crimes will be a notch higher – armed robbery with violence, say, instead of a till snatch. Meanwhile people become more tolerant of crime and anti-social behaviour. Greg adds: ‘Even if crime is genuinely going down a couple of percentage points, it is still of epidemic proportions. It makes the case – for primary, preventative action to design crime out – more important. A cycle of competitive struggle means that career criminals get better and more efficient at what they do, which makes it harder and harder to catch them.’ As for the fact that the BCS leaves out business crime, Greg pointed out that crime against businesses was the Cinderella part of crime.
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Professor Gloria Laycock, Director of the Jill Dando Institute, featured in the November print edition of Professional Security, and Greg Lawrence, Tesco Group Loss Risk Manager, were among the designing out crime expert speakers at a London seminar on October 29, Gone Shopping, part of the Design Council’s Design in Business Week.
