UK Crime Down Nearly 15% Since 2010

The public's perception of crime levels is notoriously very different to any actual crime figures going on in society. The fear of crime is a very volatile measure of actual criminality, and one which is continually played upon by the tabloid media who stir up the inherent suspicion in the public that crime is escalating out of control. However, the actual crime figures paint a very different picture.

UKCrimeStats is an open data platform of the Economic Policy Centre, a think tank dedicated to "closing the gap between policy and knowledge in new and innovative ways".  They proclaim themselves to be the leading public resource for maps, analysis and reporting of monthly crime data. Their independent data plots an interesting picture of a crime rate which is declining overall:

Source: Figures from UKCrimeStats

As an example, in July 2011 there were 278,738 burglaries reported which was down to 128,596 in January 2015.Criminal Damage & Arson (CD&A) is down from 229,915 in March 2011 to 11,802 in January 2015.

Overall reported crimes is down from 491,730 in December 2010 to 419,603 in January 2015, a reduction of nearly 15%. 

And figures in 2010 were themselves down from a crime high in the 1990's which we reported in a previous blog entry. Back in 1995 there were approximately 19 million offences recorded, as compared to fewer than 8 million by 2013: