Crime Reduction - Helping to Reduce Crime in Your Area

The report presents findings from the 2004/05 British Crime Survey (BCS). The focus of the report is to examine public worry about crime and perceptions of safety. The report examines levels and recent trends for worry about crime, and perceptions of safety; how often people worry about crime; who worries 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.

Title: Worry about crime in England & Wales: Findings from 2003/04 and 2004/05 British Crime Surveys
Author: Jonathan Allen
Series: Home Office Online Report 15/06
Number of pages: 69
Date published: October 2006
Availability: Download full report PDF 318Kb

Summary

• In 2004/05 the proportion who were very worried about theft of and from a car was lower than the previous year. However, for worry about burglary, mugging, physical attack, rape and racially motivated assault the figures were stable over this period. The proportion very worried about being insulted or pestered increased slightly since 2003/04. Less than one in seven respondents considered themselves to be very worried about each of the crimes.
• The 1994 BCS saw levels of worry for all types of crime reach their highest level, but since then we have seen large falls in the levels of those very worried, mirroring the fall in crime as measured by the BCS.
• 9% of respondents said they were very worried about being a victim of crime in general, with a further 29% fairly worried.

The BCS asks a series of questions regarding worry about different types of crime. Summary measures of ‘high level’ for worry about crime are derived from these questions for burglary, car crime, and violent crime.

Levels of worry

• The 2004/05 BCS indicated that 12% of people had high levels of worry about burglary, 13% about car crime, and 16% about violent crime.
• 8% of people had a high level of worry about both violent crime and burglary. Among those people with access to a vehicle, only 4% had a high level of worry about all three crimes types.

• Women (14%) were more likely than men (10%) to have a high level of worry about burglary. Similar proportions of both men and women had high levels of worry about car crime (13% and 14% respectively), but women were far more likely to be very worried about violence than men (23% compared with 8%). For overall worry, women were almost twice as likely to have a high level of worry (very worried) than men (11% compared with 6%).
• Worry about crime varied according to ethnic group. People from an asian background and black respondents were far more likely than white respondents to have high levels of worry about all three types of crime and also for worry about crime in general
• The factors most strongly associated with high levels of worry about crime overall were:

• believing it likely to be physically attacked by a stranger in the coming year,
• perceiving a high level of disorder in the local area,
• being female and being from a minority ethnic group.

In 2003/04 a set of specifically designed questions were introduced to examine how often people worry, focussing on three crime types: car theft, burglary and being mugged or robbed. It is possible to use these questions to construct a measure of ‘high-frequency’ worry, based on worrying on average at least once a week in the last 12 months.

 

Frequency of worry

• In 2003/04, for worry about burglary and car theft seven in ten people (70%) said that they had not worried in the last year, with 86% of people not worrying about being mugged or robbed in this period. The proportions who worried daily (on average) were very low, at around 1% for each of the three crime types. 5% worried on average once a week about having their car stolen, compared to 4% about burglary, and 2% about being mugged or robbed.
• Comparing the two forms of measurement of worry about crime (high-level of worry and highfrequency of worry) for the individual crime types, showed large similarities in the factors most strongly associated with worry. Comparing across crime types also showed a large level of consistency. Belief in the likelihood of victimisation and perceptions of disorder in the local area were both factors strongly associated with high level and high frequency of worry. This suggests that addressing people’s perceptions of their likelihood of victimisation and disorder in their local area would have a notable effect on their worry about crime.

Context and impact of fear

• Serious illness was the most likely circumstance people were worried about in relation to themselves or someone close to them, with 38% of the population stating they worried most about this. A sixth (17%) reported having an accident of one kind or another as their primary worry and only one in ten (10%) said that being a victim of crime was the one thing they worried about the most, a similar proportion to financial concerns.
• In 2004/05 almost two-thirds of people (64%) felt that fear of crime had a low impact on their quality of life and a further 31% said it had a moderate impact. Only 5% of people considered that their quality of life was greatly affected because of their fear of crime. Women were significantly more likely than men to report that their quality of life was greatly affected by their fear of crime.
• The proportion of people who felt that their quality of life was greatly affected by their fear of crime has been relatively stable over time, although the figure for 2004/05 was significantly lower than that for 1998.

Feelings of safety

• For 2004/05, 10% of respondents said that they felt ‘very unsafe’ walking alone in their area after dark and a further 20% felt ‘a bit unsafe’.
• The proportion feeling unsafe has remained relatively stable over time, at between 10 to 13 per cent feeling unsafe walking alone after dark in their local area. The latest figures for the proportion feeling very unsafe walking alone after dark are the lowest since the question was introduced in the 1984 BCS.
• In 2003/04 only 1% of people said that they felt very unsafe walking alone in their area during the day, with a further 2% ‘a bit unsafe’. In 2004/05 less than 1% felt very unsafe in this situation.
• One-sixth (17%) of respondents said that they avoid walking alone in their local area on a regular basis because of concerns for their safety, with a further 13% doing so ‘occasionally’.
• For over four-fifths of individuals (82%), seeing more officers on foot patrol was considered something that would make them feel safer, and 61% said this about seeing more officers on patrol in cars. However, when asked to select one option only, 60% of people said the one thing that would make them feel safest was more police on patrol on foot.
• For those people with a high level of worry about burglary and violent crime, nine out of ten stated that seeing more officers on foot patrol would make them feel safer.
• When asked what the local police could do to make respondents feel safest, increasing numbers on foot patrol again topped the list (62%) but almost half (44%) also noted responding rapidly to emergency calls and/or situations. Only one-fifth (22%) thought more use of CCTV to monitor public places would accomplish this.

Getting a copy

Download Worry about crime in England & Wales: Findings from 2003/04 and 2004/05 British Crime Surveys PDF 318Kb

Last update: Wednesday, October 25, 2006