The public are being misled about the true volume of crime by the British Crime Survey which omits three million crimes, according to a report published by think-tank Civitas.
The report, ‘Crime in England and Wales: More Violence and More Chronic Victims’, is written by Graham Farrell, professor of criminology at Loughborough University, and Ken Pease, now retired, visiting professor at Loughborough and former acting head of the Police Research Group at the Home Office.<br><br>It reveals that, ever since its inception in 1981, the British Crime Survey (BCS) has omitted many crimes committed against people who have been repeat victims. If people are victimised in the same way by the same perpetrators more than five times in a year, the number of crimes is put down as five. The justification for this was ‘to avoid extreme cases distorting the rates’, but, as Farrell and Pease point out, ‘if the people who say they suffered ten incidents really did, it is capping the series at five that distorts the rate’.<br><br>By recalculating the figures without the arbitrary cap of five crimes, Farrell and Pease have revealed that there are over three million crimes omitted from the BCS:<br><br>In its most recent published sweep, BCS estimated an annual total of some 6.8 million ‘household’ crimes (covering burglary; theft in a dwelling; other household theft; thefts of and from vehicles; bicycle theft; and vandalism to household property and vehicles). It estimated some 4.1 million ‘personal’ crimes (which covers assault, sexual offences, robbery, theft from the person, and other personal theft). The re-analysis suggests that, if we believe what the respondents tell us, there would be 7.8 million household offences and 6.3 million personal crimes. Thus, removing the arbitrary five offence limit, over three million extra offences come to light… Household crime is increased by 15pc and personal crime by a 52pc. As the sum of personal and household crimes, total crime would have been understated by 29pc.<br><br>The increase in the number of crimes is not evenly spread across all types of crime. For example, theft of vehicles is not increased at all, but levels of vandalism are almost a quarter more than reported, and there are 20 per cent more burglaries. Violent crime of all types increases by 83 per cent. Violence perpetrated by an acquaintance increases by 156 per cent and domestic violence by 140 per cent. As Farrell and Pease say, ‘these are not minor differences’. <br><br>Farrell and Pease believe that ‘crime control, police training and criminal justice action are now substantially misdirected’. In particular police attention has been diverted from protection of some of the most vulnerable people in society. Separate incidents may be dismissed as trivial but if each one is an episode in a long-running feud or vendetta the consequences have sometimes been fatal. For example, in January 2006, a house in Wythenshawe, Manchester, had petrol poured through its letterbox and ignited. The two adults in the home, Mr and Mrs Cochrane, died, and their daughter Lucy was burned. It emerged that a hostile family, the Connors, were responsible:<br><br>‘The 18-month feud began after schoolgirl Natalie Connor developed an obsessive hatred of her classmate because of an apparent slight. The dispute between the two families, in which Natalie falsely claimed she had been bullied by Lucy, came to a head when Michael bought two litres of petrol and poured it through the Cochranes’ letterbox. A heavy drinker, he was goaded by his wife, who plied him with alcohol before the attack early on January 12 this year. Five days earlier, Mrs Cochrane discovered what appeared to be a flammable liquid on her front door and found that someone had tried to uproot a tree from the garden. She called the police but no sample of the liquid was taken. Connor and his wife were convicted last week on two counts of murder. Their daughter was found guilty of manslaughter and attempting to cause grievous bodily harm to Lucy. Alistair Webster QC, prosecuting, had told the jury during the six-week trial that Natalie had developed an obsessive enmity towards her classmate that eventually led to her and her mother inciting Connor to start the fire.’ (Guardian, 21 December 2006)<br><br>They could have mentioned the case of Peter Woodhams, the young father from East London who was shot dead despite pleading for police protection from a gang of youths who had already slashed his face after he complained about them throwing stones at his car. In May this year, the Independent Police Complaints Commission found that the police had failed him.<br><br>Commenting, David Davis, the Tory Shadow Home Secretary said: "We can’t begin to tackle crime if we don’t measure it properly … We have long pointed out that the British Crime Survey is not a satisfactory method of recording crime. Not only does it arbitrarily cap the number of times a victim can suffer the same offence, it also misses out whole sections of crime all together. For example it does not record crimes against under-16s." <br><br>He went on: "However, instead of addressing these failings, the Government have persisted with them as an inaccurate picture of the level of crime suits their policy of fiddling crime stats in order to get a good headline. <br><br>"It is long past time the Government answered our calls to have crime statistics recorded and published independent of the Home Office. We can’t begin to tackle crime if we don’t measure it properly."
And in similar vein, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Clegg MP said: "It is obvious that the official statistics on crime do not paint the full picture. Ignoring the extent of repeat offences does nothing to help people who suffer the trauma of being regularly targeted by criminals. Ten years of the Government’s tough talk and endless legislation have not left people feeling any safer."
