Crime in England and Wales remained stable during the past 12 months, according to Home Office figures. Here are key statistics from the 2006-07 Crime in England and Wales survey.
PERCENTAGE CHANGES IN TYPES OF CRIME
Levels of crime have remained stable in England and Wales over the last 12 months, Home Office figures show.
Vandalism is the only British Crime Survey [BCS] category to show a significant change since 2005/06; increasing by 10%.
Levels of violent crime has remained stable according to BCS interviews in 2006/07 compared with 2005/06.
Recorded crime figures show a 1% fall in violence against the
person, a 7% fall in sexual offences and a 3% increase in robbery for 2006/07 compared with 2005/06.
The data comes from the BCS, which polls public experience of crime and recorded crime figures from the police.
TYPES OF CRIME
Violent crime represented 22% of all BCS crime in 2006/07, but the majority of both BCS and recorded crime relate to property.
Vehicle thefts account for 15% of all BCS crime, while other thefts make up another 30% of BCS crime and 23% of recorded crime.
Burglary accounts for 6% of BCS crime and 11% of recorded crime. More than half of recorded burglaries are in a building other than a home.
TRENDS IN CRIME
BCS crimes rose steadily during the 1980s and early 1990s, peaking in 1995. Between 1995 and 2004/05 total BCS crime fell and has since stabilised, with the recent apparent increase not being statistically significant, according to the Home Office.
TRENDS IN SERIOUS CRIME SINCE 1981
This graph illustrates how crime figures have changed by taking, for illustrative purposes, crime in 1981 as a base figure and recording change relative to that on an 'index' over time.
The 'spike' in all police recorded crime around 1998 occurred following the addition of many extra offences to the notifiable list and improvements in the recording of police data with the introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard [NCRS] from 2002/03.
TRENDS IN VIOLENT CRIME
There were 1,046,437 offences of violence against the person recorded by the police in 2006/07, which represented a fall of 1%. There were also falls in sexual offences, down seven per cent to 57,542, but robberies rose three per cent to 101,370.
Recorded violent crime has more than doubled in the eight years between 1998/99 and 2006/07. The Home Office attributes this increases in recording of violent crime following the introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard (NCRS) in April 2002.
ADULTS MOST AT RISK OF VIOLENCE
Men are much more likely than women to experience violence from someone they do not know - 'Stranger violence' - 44 % of violent incidents against men were of this kind, compared with 23% of incidents against women.
Just over a third of the estimated 2,471,000 million violent incidents recorded by the BCS in 2006/07 were incidents of stranger violence, and a further third were incidents of acquaintance violence.
Some 16% of violent incidents were incidents of domestic violence.
A third of violent incidents against women were domestic violence, compared with 6% of incidents against men
PERCEPTIONS OF CHANGING CRIME LEVELS
The proportion of people perceiving there to be more crime on both a local and national level has fallen since 1996.
Since 2004/05 the local and national trends have diverged slightly, with the proportion perceiving an increase in local crime remaining relatively stable while the proportion believing there to be more crime nationwide has gone up.
ALCOHOL AND CRIME
This final graph shows in broad terms the times when crimes take place. It was calculated as part of a government study into the new 24-hour licensing laws. The new rules allow pubs to apply to set opening hours beyond the historic closing time of 11pm.
Since the new rules were introduced
figures show that only a fifth of pubs close at 11pm but 80% close their doors by 1am. The crime figures show no apparent overall increase in disorder - but they do show a shift of when it happens from between 9pm and midnight to after 3am.