A study examined what factors affected neighbourhood security and insecurity, and how these influenced the way urban neighbourhoods changed. People's perceptions and beliefs about disorder and crime were as important risk factors for neighbourhood decline as actual crime and disorder rates.
Source: Martin Innes and Vanessa Jones, Neighbourhood Security and Urban Change: Risk, resilience and recovery, York Publishing Services for Joseph Rowntree Foundation, available from York Publishing Services Ltd (01904 430033)
Links: Report | JRF Findings
Date: 2006-Nov
Researchers reported on a longitudinal survey of the development of offending and anti-social behaviour in 411 males first studied at age 8 in 1961 (when they were all living in a working-class deprived inner-city area of south London). 41 per cent of the study males were convicted for standard-list offences (excluding motoring offences) between age 10 and age 50. The average conviction career lasted from age 19 to 28 and included five convictions.
Source: David Farrington et al., Criminal Careers and Life Success: New findings from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development, Research Study 299, Home Office (020 7273 2084)
Links: Report | Findings | Guardian report
Date: 2006-Nov
A study found that gratuitous violence used in street robberies was increasing and getting more severe. Robberies could be prompted by anger, the desire to start a fight, to increase 'street cred', as an act of informal 'street justice' - or even just for kicks.
Source: Trevor Bennett, Fiona Brookman and Richard Wright, A Qualitative Study of the Role of Violence in Street Crime, Economic and Social Research Council (01793 413000)
Links: Report | ESRC press release | Nacro press release | Guardian report | Times report
Date: 2006-Nov
A new book examined the relationship between disadvantage and crime. It said that the transmission mechanism linking economic and social stress to crime was not offender motivation but disruption to the parenting process.
Source: Don Weatherburn and Bronwyn Lind, Delinquent-prone Communities, Cambridge University Press (01223 312393)
Links: Summary
Date: 2006-Nov
The number of offences in Scotland reported by the police which had a religious aggravation increased by 55 per cent between June-December 2003 and June-December 2004.
Source: Kathleen Doyle, Use of Section 74 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003: Religiously Aggravated Reported Crime - An 18 month review, Scottish Executive, available from Blackwell's Bookshop (0131 622 8283)
Links: Report | SE press release
Date: 2006-Nov
A report analyzed the two-year re-offending rates of adults (those aged 18 and over at date of sentence or on release from prison). It covered offenders who were released from prison or commenced a community penalty in the first quarter of 2003 (the 2003 cohort). There was progress of 2.3 per cent against the government target specifying a reduction in re-offending of 5 per cent from the 2000 baseline, against the predicted rates, for the 2006 cohort.
Source: Adrian Shepherd and Elizabeth Whiting, Re-offending of Adults: Results from the 2003 Cohort, Statistical Bulletin 20/06, Home Office (020 7273 2084)
Links: Bulletin | Times report
Date: 2006-Nov
The report of a government-commissioned review said that the way crime statistics were produced needed a 'radical overhaul'. The existing system missed out significant groups of victims, and some definitions of crime were 'confusing and misleading'.
Source: Crime Statistics: An independent review, Home Office (0870 000 1585)
Links: Report | Home Office press release | BBC report | FT report
Date: 2006-Nov
A report examined levels of (and recent trends in) worry about crime, and perceptions of safety; how often people worried about crime; who worried about crime; the factors most strongly associated with worry about crime; the impact of worry about crime; and perceptions of safety in relation to police priorities.
Source: Jonathan Allen, Worry about Crime in England and Wales: Findings from the 2003/04 and 2004/05 British Crime Survey, Online Report 15/06, Home Office (web publication only)
Links: Report
Date: 2006-Oct
The statistics watchdog said that Home Office ministers should be removed from any involvement in the production of official crime statistics, in order to restore public confidence in their accuracy.
Source: Crime Statistics: User Perspectives, Report 30, Statistics Commission (020 7273 8008)
Links: Report | StatComm press release | Guardian report | Times report
Date: 2006-Sep
A report said that the government lacked a coherent, evidence-based strategy for dealing with knife carrying and knife-related offences. There was a lack of knowledge about the carrying and use of knives and the motivations for this behaviour.
Source: Chris Eades, Knife Crime: Ineffective reactions to a distracting problem? - A review of evidence and policy, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies/King's College London (020 7848 1688)
Links: Report | CCJS press release
Date: 2006-Aug
A new book examined crime and ageing. It considered older people as both victims and perpetrators of crime, and looked at the conditions faced by older prisoners. The needs of elders needed to be given greater prominence on the penal policy agenda.
Source: Azrini Wahidin and Maureen Cain (eds.), Ageing, Crime and Society, Willan Publishing (01884 840337)
Links: Summary
Date: 2006-Jul
The British Crime Survey showed that overall crime for 2005-06 was stable compared with 2004-05. Police-recorded crime showed a 1 per cent fall in the number of crimes recorded for the same period. But there was an 8 per cent rise in street crime.
Source: Alison Walker, Chris Kershaw and Sian Nicholas, Crime in England and Wales: 2005/06, Statistical Bulletin 12/06, Home Office (020 7273 2084)
Links: Bulletin | Links to tables | Home Office press release | Guardian report | BBC report | Times report
Date: 2006-Jul
A report by a committee of MPs said that, despite continuing improvements in the situation in Northern Ireland in the previous decade, organized crime continued to have a damaging effect on the economy and society. The committee expressed concerns over the control which paramilitaries or former paramilitaries (both loyalist and republican) continued to exercise over communities.
Source: Organised Crime in Northern Ireland, Third Report (Session 2005-06), HC 886, House of Commons Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | NIO press release | Guardian report | FT report
Date: 2006-Jul
A study found that community spirit had a bigger influence on crime rates than levels of deprivation.
Source: Elaine Wedlock, Crime and Cohesive Communities, Online Report 19/06, Home Office (web publication only)
Links: Report
Date: 2006-Jun
A think-tank report said that people in low-income groups and those who were unemployed were twice as likely as others to become victims of violent crime, and nearly three times more likely to suffer emotional damage as a result of being attacked.
Source: Mike Dixon, Howard Reed, Ben Rogers and Lucy Stone, CrimeShare: The unequal impact of crime, Institute for Public Policy Research, available from Central Books (0845 458 9911)
Links: Report | IPPR press release | Guardian report
Date: 2006-Apr
A new book examined issues associated with the crime of murder, including socio-cultural responses to it.
Source: Shani D'Cruze, Sandra Walklate and Samantha Pegg, Murder: Social and historical approaches to understanding murder and murderers, Willan Publishing (01884 840337)
Links: Summary
Date: 2006-Apr
A report said that homeless people were the victims of exceptionally high levels of violence, crime, and victimization - far in excess of those experienced by the general public.
Source: Tim Newburn and Paul Rock, Living in Fear: Violence and victimisation in the lives of single homeless people, Crisis (020 7015 1800)
Links: Report
Date: 2006-Mar
A government report summarized the types of offences and offender responsible for the majority of crime levels.
Source: Reducing Crime An overview analysis, Home Office (0870 000 1585)
Links: Report
Date: 2006-Mar
The police service inspectorate said that most police forces in England and Wales correctly decided which calls from the public should not be treated as violent crime. But of the 5 per cent of violent crimes that were removed from the record after police decided that there had been no crime, fewer than 7 in 10 of the decisions were correct.
Source: Crime Counts: A review of data quality for offences of the most serious violence, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (01527 882000)
Links: Report | Technical paper | HMIC press release | Home Office press release | ACPO press release
Date: 2006-Jan
Annual statistics were published on offenders dealt with by formal police cautions, reprimands or warnings, or criminal court proceedings in England and Wales in 2007.
Source: Criminal Statistics: England and Wales 2007, Ministry of Justice (020 7210 8500)
Links: Report
Date: 2006-Jan
The government announced a cross-party review of how crime statistics in England and Wales were compiled and published, designed to increase public understanding of crime trends.
Source: Press release 26 January 2006, Home Office (0870 000 1585)
Links: Home Office press release | ACPO press release
Date: 2006-Jan