UK Data Archive Study Number 7280 - Crime Survey for England and Wales: Secure Access 27 November 2014 About this Release: Focus on Property Crime, 2013/14 Coverage: England and Wales Date: 27 November 2014 Geographical Area: Country Theme: Crime and Justice Key points • Property crime covers a range of criminal activities where the aim is to either steal property or to cause damage to it. It is an important driver of overall crime, accounting for 70% of all police recorded crime in 2013/14 and 82% of all incidents measured by the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) in the same period. • Property crime has seen marked reductions since peak levels in the 1990s, with falls seen across both main measures of crime. The CSEW indicates that while there have been long term declines across most types of property crime, the falls have been most pronounced in vehicle- related theft and domestic burglary. • Cash and wallets/purses continue to be stolen in a high proportion of theft offences. However, as more people carry valuable electronic gadgets, these too have become desirable targets. For example, the latest data from the CSEW indicate that about half of theft from the person incidents involved the theft of a mobile phone. • The value of items is an important factor in driving trends in theft. Metal theft provides a good example of this, with increases seen between 2009/10 and 2011/12, which corresponded with a spike in metal commodity prices. However, the most recent metal theft data from the police show that levels are falling, with the 40,680 offences recorded during 2013/14 representing a decrease of around a third compared with 2012/13. • The 2013/14 CSEW showed that 5.1% of plastic card owners were victims of card fraud in the previous year, a much higher rate of victimisation than traditional offences such as theft from the person (1.1%). • Younger age groups were more likely to be victims than older age groups in all property crime types, according to the 2013/14 CSEW. Across all types of property crime those living in urban areas were more likely to have been victims than those living in rural areas. • The likelihood of victimisation based on other characteristics such as employment status, occupation and household income varied for different crime types. For example, households where the reference person was unemployed (5.8%) were over twice as likely to be victims of domestic burglary compared with those where the reference person was in employment (2.7%) or economically inactive (2.3%). Office for National Statistics | 1 27 November 2014 • Students were more likely to be victims of property crime than those in other groups. This was true for a number of crime types, including bicycle theft and theft from the person. Introduction This release is the first of three annual ‘Focus on’ publications produced through collaboration between ONS and Home Office analysts. It explores a variety of official statistics on property crime, and is based on interviews carried out on the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) in the year to March 2014 and crimes recorded by the police period over the same period. Trend analysis from both sources is included. Chapter 1 provides an overview of property crime recorded by the police and property crimes measured by the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW). As well as covering trends in property crime, the chapter also discusses CSEW data contained within the ‘Nature of property crime’ tables published alongside this release, which provide more detailed information on crimes measured by the survey. The chapter also presents some statistics on property crimes against businesses based on the Commercial Victimisation Survey (CVS). Chapter 2 looks at metal theft offences recorded by the police in England and Wales over the last two years. It looks into how metal theft rates vary across regions and includes a breakdown of the statistics by police force area. It and also provides a breakdown of metal theft offences by offence category for a subset of police forces. The Data sources and references section and User Guide to Crime Statistics for England and Wales give more details on each of the sources used in this release. Background notes 1. A list of the organisations given pre-publication access to the contents of this bulletin can be found on ONS’ website. 2. In accordance with the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007, statistics based on police recorded crime data have been assessed against the Code of Practice for Official Statistics and found not to meet the required standard for designation as National Statistics. The full assessment report can be found on the UK Statistics Authority website. 3. Details of the policy governing the release of new data are available by visiting www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/assessment/code-of-practice/index.html or from the Media Relations Office email: [email protected] The United Kingdom Statistics Authority has designated these statistics as National Statistics, in accordance with the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 and signifying compliance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. Designation can be broadly interpreted to mean that the statistics: • meet identified user needs; Office for National Statistics | 2 27 November 2014 • are well explained and readily accessible; • are produced according to sound methods; and • are managed impartially and objectively in the public interest. Once statistics have been designated as National Statistics it is a statutory requirement that the Code of Practice shall continue to be observed. Copyright © Crown copyright 2014 You may use or re-use this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/ or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: [email protected]. This document is also available on our website at www.ons.gov.uk. Office for National Statistics | 3 27 November 2014 Chapter 1: Property Crime - Overview Coverage: England and Wales Date: 27 November 2014 Geographical Area: Country Theme: Crime and Justice Introduction This overview chapter covers statistics on property crime recorded by the police1 and property crimes measured by the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW). As well as covering trends in property crime, the chapter also discusses CSEW data contained within the ‘Nature of Crime’ tables published alongside this release, which provide more detailed information on crimes measured by the survey. The chapter also presents some statistics on property crimes against businesses based on the Commercial Victimisation Survey (CVS). For further information on each of these sources, see the ‘Data Sources and References’ section of this release. Property crime is defined as incidents where individuals, households or corporate bodies are deprived of their property by illegal means or where their property is damaged. It includes offences of burglary and other household theft; vehicle offences (which include theft of vehicles or property from vehicles); bicycle theft; robbery and other personal theft; shoplifting; fraud; and criminal damage. For the purposes of this report, robbery2 is included as a property crime. Following an assessment of ONS crime statistics by the UK Statistics Authority, the statistics based on police recorded crime data have been found not to meet the required standard for designation as National Statistics. The full assessment report can be found on the UK Statistics Authority website. Data from the CSEW continue to be badged as National Statistics; data from the CVS are classed as Official Statistics as they have not yet been assessed for National Statistics status. ONS are working to address the requirements set out by the UK Statistics Authority and a summary of progress is available on the Crime statistics methodology page. Property crime accounted for 70% (2,620,175 offences) of all police recorded crime in 2013/14 and 82% (an estimated 6,006,000 incidents) of all crime covered by the 2013/14 CSEW. Of the crimes covered by the CVS, in both the 2012 and 2013 CVS 91% were property related (an estimated 8,365,000 offences in the 2012 survey and 6,202,000 offences in the 2013 survey). The consistently high proportion of offences accounted for by property crime means that these types of crimes, in particular the high volume ones such as vehicle-related theft, criminal damage and burglary, are important in driving overall crime trends. Office for National Statistics | 1 27 November 2014 The largest component of property crime in the 2013/14 CSEW was criminal damage (24%). Other components that made up CSEW property crime include: ‘other’ theft of personal property (which is largely theft of unattended property; 16%); vehicle-related theft (16%); domestic burglary (13%); and ‘other’ household theft (that is, theft from a dwelling by someone entitled to be there or theft from outside a dwelling; 13%). For a full breakdown, see Figure 1.1. This breakdown of offence types has seen some notable changes over time. The largest component at the 1995 peak in crime was vehicle-related theft, which made up 28% of CSEW property crime. Other components included: criminal damage (22%); domestic burglary (16%); and ‘other’ theft of personal property (14%). For a full breakdown, see Figure 1.1. Comparing the composition of property crime in 1995 to the 2013/14 survey, the most noticeable difference is in vehicle-related theft, which has dropped from an estimated 4.2 million offences in 1995 (making up 28% of property crime) to an estimated 0.9 million offences in the 2013/14 survey (making up 16% of property crime).