Crime - Attacks Against The Person

[agchristie]

Is this getting worse? There have been many awful incidents of late in the UK. Should we be more fearful given police cutbacks across our forces?

[Buenchico]

>>>Is this getting worse?

No. The newspapers are just getting even worse than ever at representing the true facts.

The Crime Survey for England & Wales shows that the figures for violent crime (for the period up until the end of March this year) are 20% LOWER than for the previous year and 65% LOWER than for 1995. (i.e. violent crime has FALLEN BY TWO THIRDS over the past decade):
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/crime-stats/crime-statistics/period-ending-march-2014/stb-crime-stats.html#tab-Violent-Crime

[Buenchico]

^^^Oops! That should of course be 'over the past two decades'

[agchristie]

Interesting stats Buenchico.I wonder how the general public feel about those rates,a big drop in 20 years. What about the millions of pounds the Police have to find in savings and how will this impact on future figures I wonder?

[agchristie]

Does nobody at all have an opinion on this? I say this in the hope that it stays in the latest six posts long enough to be noticed !!!

[sandyRoe]

There have always been such attacks and probably always will. A neighbour was burgled the other night, not harmed in any way-she slept through it- but hearing such news makes people uneasy. It's the same with reports of violence. Most people are unlikely to ever be a victim but press reports makes them think they might be.

[TTG]

Maybe it's just not reported by the victims as much a) Fear of reprisals b) Knowing the criminal (if caught) will probably just a slap on the wrist and then...see a).

[Buenchico]

>>>Maybe it's just not reported by the victims as much

That could possibly explain a drop in figures provided by police forces, TTG, but not in the figures recorded by the CSEW. That's conducted by interviewers going into thousands of people's homes (having made telephone appointments first) and then going through a very detailed questionnaire with respondents aged 16 or over, with the data being recorded directly onto their laptops. That questionnaire takes at least 30 minutes to complete and is very carefully designed to ensure that it produces genuinely accurate figures.

Further, to ensure that crimes against young people are included in the figures, interviews are also carried out (with parental permission, obviously) with children aged between 10 and 15. Even though shorter interviews are used, they still take between 15 and 20 minutes each.

Statistic was a major specialism for my mathematics degree and I often want to throw my hands up in horror when I see the way that some questionnaires are worded (and the way that data is then extracted from them). But I've completed one of those CSEW surveys myself and I was extremely impressed with the both the way that it was worded and the way with which it was carried out.

[agchristie]

Fascinating Buenchico - thanks for that. I still fear that policing levels could be an issue in the years to come in the fight against crime...