Crime Survey for England and Wales

Crime Survey for England and Wales
Name	Crime Survey for England and Wales
Other names	British Crime Survey
Country	United Kingdom
Administered by	Office for National Statistics
Started	1982
Frequency	Annual
Topics	Victimisation, personal crime, household crime

Crime Survey for England and Wales The Crime Survey for England and Wales is a large-scale victimisation survey conducted in the United Kingdom by the Office for National Statistics, the Home Office and formerly the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, designed to measure crime prevalence independently of police records; it informs ministers in Whitehall, analysts at the Bank of England, researchers at the London School of Economics and practitioners at the Crown Prosecution Service on trends in offences such as robbery, burglary and assault. The survey underpins policy debates in Westminster, research at University College London and monitoring by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, while intersecting with comparative studies such as the International Crime Victim Survey and projects at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Overview

The survey samples households across England and Wales using address lists derived from the Royal Mail Postcode Address File, drawing on fieldwork teams from Ipsos MORI and researchers affiliated with the Office for National Statistics and the Home Office to interview residents about experiences of theft, violence and anti-social behaviour; its scope covers offences recorded by the Metropolitan Police Service, Greater Manchester Police, West Midlands Police and other forces, complementing data from the National Crime Recording Standard and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services. Respondent protections reference guidance from the Research Ethics Committee at King's College London and paediatric safeguarding protocols used by NHS trusts and local authorities; the survey's sample design is informed by methods developed at the University of Oxford, University of Cambridge and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

Methodology

The survey employs a stratified multistage probability sample with household selection based on output areas defined by the Office for National Statistics, combining face-to-face interviews using Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing instruments developed with input from academics at Queen Mary University of London and statisticians from the Royal Statistical Society. Question modules draw on instrument design tested in pilots at the National Centre for Social Research and empirical frameworks used by the European Crime and Safety Survey and Bureau of Justice Statistics in the United States; weighting and variance estimation use techniques associated with the International Labour Organization and econometricians at the University of Warwick, while data linkage protocols align with standards from NHS Digital and the Information Commissioner's Office.

Historical development

Origins trace to a Home Office initiative in the early 1980s that paralleled work at the Bureau of Justice Statistics and researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, leading to implementation under ministers in Number 10 and ministers at the Home Office; early proponents included scholars from the University of Manchester and the Institute for Fiscal Studies who sought alternatives to police-recorded crime statistics after debates involving Scotland Yard and the Royal Commission. Revisions in the 1990s incorporated the National Crime Recording Standard, influenced by recommendations from Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, and methodological overhauls in the 2000s were guided by consultation with the Economic and Social Research Council, the Social Survey Division at the Office for National Statistics and advisory committees featuring academics from the University of Bristol and the University of Edinburgh. Recent changes include measures on cyber-enabled crime aligning with work at the Alan Turing Institute and the Information Commissioner's Office, and domestic violence modules influenced by policy work at Refuge, Women’s Aid and the Crown Prosecution Service.

Findings and statistics

Key findings have shown long-term declines in household burglary, vehicle theft and street robbery, trends comparable to those reported by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada and the Australian Bureau of Statistics; measured fluctuations in violent crime, sexual offences and fraud have informed analyses by the London School of Economics, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Centre for Social Justice. The survey provides victimisation rates by age cohorts such as young people studied at Goldsmiths, University of London and older adults covered in research at the University of Stirling, disaggregated by regions including Greater London, West Yorkshire and Merseyside, and used in crime mapping by the Ordnance Survey and policing partnerships like the National Policing Improvement Agency and College of Policing.

Impact and uses

Findings are cited in parliamentary debates at the House of Commons and policy papers from HM Treasury, shaping policing priorities for chief constables at the College of Policing, resource allocation for the Metropolitan Police Service and commissioning by local councils and combined authorities such as the Greater Manchester Combined Authority. Academics at the University of Birmingham, University of Glasgow and Durham University use the dataset for longitudinal research, while charities including Victim Support, the Howard League for Penal Reform and Shelter draw on the survey to advocate for victims' services, sentencing reforms and housing-related crime prevention programmes; international organisations including the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development reference the survey in comparative assessments.

Criticisms and limitations

Critiques arise from academics at the London School of Economics, University of Cambridge and University of Leicester concerning under-counting of corporate fraud and cybercrime compared with data from Action Fraud and the National Cyber Security Centre, and from victim-survivor organisations such as Rape Crisis and Amnesty International about disclosure barriers for sexual offences. Methodological limitations noted by statisticians at the Royal Statistical Society and the National Audit Office include coverage gaps for institutional populations such as prisoners in HM Prison Service and students living in halls, recall bias discussed by psychologists at the University of Sussex, and constraints in measuring repeat victimisation highlighted by researchers at the University of Sheffield and Cardiff University.

Category:Surveys in the United Kingdom