Crime Survey for England and Wales: Difference between revisions

 

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== Limitations ==

== Limitations ==

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Unlike police-reported crime in the UK, the methodology of the CSEW has remained largely unchanged since its inception in 1982. The [[Office for National Statistics]] (ONS) therefore regards it as the most reliable source of long-term trend information.<ref name=”:7″>{{Cite web |date=2024-06-27 |title=Crime trends in England and Wales and how we measure them |url=https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/crimetrendsinenglandandwalesandhowwemeasurethem/2024-03-06 |access-date=2025-11-10 |website=Office for National Statistics}}</ref> However, it fails to capture ‘high-harm’ crime effectively. This is because such crimes (e.g., gun crime, attempted murder) occur relatively infrequently compared to theft or burglary, thereby producing an insufficient sample size.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-06-13 |title=Overview of crime statistics: the Crime Survey for England and Wales and police recorded crime |url=https://homeofficemedia.blog.gov.uk/2023/06/13/overview-of-crime-statistics-the-crime-survey-for-england-and-wales-and-police-recorded-crime-2/ |access-date=2025-11-23 |website=Home Office in the media}}</ref> The methodology of the survey also prevents it from capturing certain other categories such as homicide, since the victim cannot be interviewed, and so-called ‘victimless’ crimes such as drug or weapon possession, are not covered. This data therefore comes exclusively from the police.

Unlike police-reported crime in the UK, the methodology of the CSEW has remained largely unchanged since its inception in 1982. The [[Office for National Statistics]] (ONS) therefore regards it as the most reliable source of long-term trend information.<ref name=”:7″>{{Cite web |date=2024-06-27 |title=Crime trends in England and Wales and how we measure them |url=https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/crimetrendsinenglandandwalesandhowwemeasurethem/2024-03-06 |access-date=2025-11-10 |website=Office for National Statistics}}</ref> However, it fails to capture ‘high-harm’ crime effectively. This is because such crimes (e.g., gun crime, attempted murder) occur relatively infrequently compared to theft or burglary, thereby producing an insufficient sample size.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-06-13 |title=Overview of crime statistics: the Crime Survey for England and Wales and police recorded crime |url=https://homeofficemedia.blog.gov.uk/2023/06/13/overview-of-crime-statistics-the-crime-survey-for-england-and-wales-and-police-recorded-crime-2/ |access-date=2025-11-23 |website=Home Office in the media}}</ref> The methodology of the survey also prevents it from capturing certain other categories such as homicide, since the victim cannot be interviewed, and so-called ‘victimless’ crimes such as drug or weapon possession, are not covered. This data therefore comes exclusively from the police.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) (previously called the British Crime Survey) is a systematic victim study established in 1982 (with data from 1981). It is currently carried out by Verian (formally known as Kantar Public) on behalf of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and curated by the UK Data Service. The survey is comparable to the National Crime Victimization Survey conducted in the United States.

The CSEW seeks to measure the amount of crime in England and Wales by asking around 50,000 people aged 16 and over, living in private households, about the crimes they have experienced in the last year.

The Children’s Crime Survey for England and Wales (CCSEW) was established in January 2009 when the main survey was expanded to include interviews with children aged 10 to 15.^[2] This was further expanded in 2023 to include more information on child victimisation.^[3]

By the late 1970s and early 1980s, the unreliability of police-recorded crime statistics in the UK had evolved into an institutional crisis within the Home Office. The government response was to create a parallel statistical measure independent of law enforcement activity. The first British Crime Survey (BCS) launched in 1982 and was explicitly aimed at addressing this acknowledged ‘crisis’ in official statistics.^[4] By 1998, data from the BCS suggested that the police received reports for less than half of all offences that occurred.^[5][6]

After the first survey, further surveys took place in 1984, 1988, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000 and 2001. From April 2001, BCS interviews were then carried out on a continuous basis. Detailed results are now reported by financial years with headline measures updated quarterly based on interviews conducted in the previous 12 months.

The Scottish Government commissioned a bespoke survey of victimisation in Scotland called the Scottish Crime and Victimisation Survey (SCVS). As a result, the British Crime Survey was renamed the Crime Survey for England and Wales in 2012 to reflect this.^[7] Since 1994 there has also been a separate Northern Ireland Crime Survey, conducted on a biennial basis from 2001, and continuously from January 2005. It is produced by the Statistics and Research Branch of the NIO and broadly comparable to its counterpart in England and Wales.^[8]

Unlike police-reported crime in the UK, the methodology of the CSEW has remained largely unchanged since its inception in 1982. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) therefore regards it as the most reliable source of long-term trend information.^[9] However, it fails to capture ‘high-harm’ crime effectively. This is because such crimes (e.g., gun crime, attempted murder) occur relatively infrequently compared to theft or burglary, thereby producing an insufficient sample size.^[10] The methodology of the survey also prevents it from capturing certain other categories such as homicide, since the victim cannot be interviewed, and so-called ‘victimless’ crimes such as drug or weapon possession, are not covered. This data therefore comes exclusively from the police.

The CSEW does not include non-household populations (approximately 1.7% of the population in England and Wales according to Census 2021),^[11] so excludes all victims living in care homes,^[12] prisons,^[13] student halls of residence, or the homeless – groups which likely experience crime differently from the household population. The CSEW has also not surveyed fraud and computer misuse before 2017,^[14] which may comprise as much as 40% of all crime in the UK as of 2025.^[15] It is also thought that both the youth and and the adult surveys do not distinguish between crimes not reported to the police because they thought the police would do nothing, or crimes not reported to the police because the victim thought them too trivial.^[16]

Until 2019, the survey restricted victims’ reports of the same crime by the same person and same victim to a maximum of five. The ONS argued that this ‘cap’ prevented a small number of victims distorting the statistics.^[17] In 2007, a report into the survey’s methodology estimated that this resulted in an 82% increase in crime from that reported in the year of the study, although it would not necessarily affect overall trends.^[18] In 2010, the existence of the cap was also blamed for the inability of the survey to take proper account of crimes such as domestic violence, figures for which would allegedly be 140% higher without it.^[19] In 2015, a similar study found that domestic violence against women rose by as much as 70% if the cap was removed.^[20]

In response to these criticisms on the five report limit, the ONS greatly increased this – setting it to a 98th percentile figure with all historic data revised to the new methodology in 2019. It cautioned that while this did not affect the overall trends, it did produce a small effect on the absolute numbers, with increases in violent offence types between 6.4% and 31.6%. This was due to repeat incidents being more common for those crimes.^[21]

Data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales can be downloaded for research and teaching use via the UK Data Service website. Datasets since 1982 are available under a standard End User Licence; in addition, certain data from the Crime Survey (1996 to present) are subject to more restrictive Special Licence or Secure Access conditions than the main survey.^[22] There are also bespoke versions of the survey data available for teaching purposes.

General:

• Stephen Moore, Investigating crime and deviance, ISBN 0-00-322439-2
• Van Dijk, J.J.M., van Kesteren, J.N. & Smit, P. (2008). Criminal Victimisation in International Perspective, Key findings from the 2004-2005 ICVS and EU ICS. The Hague, Boom Legal Publishers 2008 accessed at [1] May 7, 2008
• Van Dijk, J.J.M., Manchin, R., van Kesteren, J.N. & Hideg, G. (2005) The Burden of Crime in the EU. Research Report: A Comparative Analysis of the European Crime and Safety Survey (EU ICS) 2005 accessed at [2] April 3, 2007