Crime rates expected to soar as economic difficulties deepen

Crime rates expected to soar as economic difficulties deepen

Crime rates - including vehicle-related crimes - could increase as the credit crunch threatens to bring to an end the longest recorded period of falling crime in living memory...

...in England and Wales, Home Office criminologists have said.

As the latest British Crime Survey (BCS) data was published, showing a 10% fall in crime levels - equal to a million fewer offences - over the past year, Government officials predicted the economic slowdown would lead to ‘upward pressure’ on levels of property crime, such as burglary and car break-ins.

The Home Office’s chief scientific adviser, Professor Paul Wiles, said the 10% fall to 10.1 million crimes, estimated by the BCS, continued the overall 48% decline in crime since it peaked in 1995.

The figures for last year showed violent crime down 12%, car crime down 11%, vandalism down 10%, robberies down 16% and domestic burglary and personal theft stable.

The number of car-related thefts fell by 66% over the past decade to 1.497m in 2007/08 - a decline of 11% over the year.

(Guardian)