Headlines
- The North East has slightly fewer crimes per capita than the national average.
- "Violent Crime" is the most prevalent kind of crime in the region.
Levels of crime and public perception of crime can have a high impact on quality of place in any given area. Communities with low levels of crime and high levels of perceived community safety are more likely to be regarded as having a higher quality of place. As well as having social and quality of place repercussions, crime levels are very much interlinked with the economy. Economics can be a causal factor of crime – some commentators suggests that in previous recessions certain types of crime (retail theft, burglary) increased as more people faced unemployment. Equally, high levels of crime can have a negative effect on the economy – persistent vandalism to businesses can be costly, and low quality of place caused by high crime levels could deter business investment as well as driving out existing businesses.
In order to gauge and analyse crime in the UK, statistics can be taken from Police recorded crime figures – which are useful when comparing different types of crime and overall crime levels across different regions. However relying solely on the police recorded crime figures can paint a misleading picture, as it doesn’t capture the many unreported crimes, or peoples’ concerns about crime or anti-social behaviour. So to get a more complete view on crime, the police recorded figures are supplemented by data from the British Crime Survey (BCS). Generally speaking, the BCS is regarded as the most reliable indicator of long-term crime trends, because it asks people about their actual experiences of crime. It’s also useful for gauging how much people fear crime and how they try to avoid it.
In 2008/09 period there were 177,378 recorded offences in the North East. This equates to 69 offences per 1,000 people, which is lower than the national average rate of 79 offences per 1,000 people. London had the highest rate of crime with 109 offences for every 1,000 people and the East of England had the lowest with 64 recorded offences pre 1,000 people.
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Recorded crime data is also available by different offence groups – looking at this data highlights that the region has a much higher proportion of criminal damage offences than the national average: 17% in the region compared to 15% nationally, although both of these percentages had dropped since the 2008/09 report. Criminal damage can also be referred to as vandalism and as such constitutes a type of “anti social behaviour”. Because vandalism regularly occurs in a public setting it can be classed as a form of environmental crime; environmental crimes are considered to have a huge impact on communities and well-being. Not only can they ruin public spaces but they can also be very costly to clean up. So a higher rate of criminal damage in the North East may have both quality of place and economic repercussions. The proportions of recorded crimes across the remaining offence groups in the region are much more reflective of the national picture, albeit with slightly lower proportions in most other groups. Also note that incidents of robbery in the north east are comparatively very low at approximately 1/3rd of the rate nationally and consequently do not show up as a percentage of overall crime in 2009/10, despite there being just over 1,000 robberies recorded in the region over this period.
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The Home Office provides regionally comparable figures under three more detailed categories of the more prevalent types of crime in England and Wales – Vehicle theft, Burglary and Violent Crime. There are many crimes that are not covered under these three broad headings (eg criminal damage) but they provide a useful comparison of crime rates with other regions across three key offence groups.
The British Crime Survey (BCS) aggregates the rates of theft or unauthorized taking of a vehicle, theft from a vehicle and attempts at theft under the umbrella heading of vehicle theft. Vehicle theft rates (per 100,000 people) are relatively low in the North East compared to other parts of England and Wales. In 2009/10 there were 460 thefts per 10,000 adult population compared to 522 thefts per 10,000 adult population in England and Wales. This comparably low rate of vehicle theft in the North East may partly reflect the region’s relatively low level of vehicle ownership.
However this has little impact on the trend for vehicle theft and the chart below shows that the rate of vehicle theft has steadily decreased since 2001/2002 in the North East. This trend is mirrored by the rest of the country.
The rate of burglary in the North East is on a par with the average England and Wales figure of 308 incidents per 10,000 households. The rates for both the North East and England have been somewhat erratic over the past seven years, but generally the rate of burglary has been on the decrease in the North East and similarly the national figure has come down since 2002/03 – although has stabilized over the last three years.
Violent crime comprises of violence against the person, sexual offences and robbery.
Violent crime is more prevalent in the North East compared to both vehicle thefts and burglary. In the majority of other regions vehicle theft is more prevalent but as already established the region’s vehicle theft figures are deceptively lower than elsewhere. The North East rate for violent crime is the third highest out of all the regions in England and Wales at 560 incidents for every 1,000 persons. The only region with a rate higher than this is the West Midlands with 480 incidents per 10,000 adult population. Since 2006/07 the rate of violent crime in the region has been steadily decreasing to approximately the rate seen in 2004/05. Nationally the rate of violent crime has been slowly but steadily decreasing since 2001/02 and has been lower than the North East rate for the past three years. In 2008 the Home Office published its action plan for reducing violent crime in England and Wales entitled “Saving Lives. Reducing Harm. Protecting the Public: An action plan for tackling violence 2008-2011”. This plan sets out a range of actions designed to reduce priority crime types, including gun and gang-related crime; knife crime; and sexual and domestic violence.
Public perceptions of crime have been acknowledged as an important indicator in terms of assessing how crime affects communities and well being. Not only is the British Crime Survey used to assess overall levels of crime, it is also used to assess public confidence in policing, community safety and the criminal justice system.
Using categories of ‘car crime’ and ‘violence’, the 2007 results of the survey indicate that the number of people worried about these crimes in the region is at or below the national average for England and Wales. 13% of North East people are estimated to have high levels of worry about violent crime compared to 17% nationally even though the recorded level of crime is higher. The trends across both categories of crime have been downwards in recent years, with the region following the national patterns fairly closely for violent crime and fear of car crime rates improving in comparison with the national position
Fear of crime is linked with the public’s perception of police performance and the British Crime Survey collects data on the percentage of people who regard the police as doing an excellent/good job. On this measure the North East performs in line with the regional average in England and Wales in the 2009/10 period, with 56% of people reporting that the police do an excellent/good job regionally and nationally. A favourably regarded police force is an important aspect of people feeling safe in their community as well as improving the overall quality of place.
Both fear of crime and public perception of police performance are likely to be impacted by actual police numbers in any given area. At 31 March 2010 the three police forces in the North East has just under 7,420 full time equivalent police officers, of which just under 4,200 were in the Northumbria force with the remainder divided approximately equally between the Cleveland and Durham forces. This is the equivalent rate of 289 officers per 10,000 population and is 9.5% higher than the rate for England and Wales. Outside of London, the North East has the joint highest ratio (with the North West) of police officers to population of all the regions in England and Wales. Police numbers in the North East have reduced slightly over the past couple of years – falling from 295 officers per 10,000 in 2005 to 289 officers in 2010. The national picture mirrors the trend shown in the North East – but at a consistently lower rate.
The region’s comparatively high number of police officers may be a contributing factor to the relatively positive public perception of police performance and a lower fear of crime: it may follow that more officers in total leads to a more visible police force and thus a greater sense of community safety.
Since October 2007 the British Crime Survey introduced a new set of questions relating to the fairness and effectiveness of the criminal justice system (CJS). A fair and effective criminal justice system has been identified as an important part of the broader crime and communities’ agenda. The North East falls below the national average rate for both perceived CJS fairness and CJS effectiveness. 57% of those asked were very/ fairly confident in the fairness of the criminal justice system and 38% responded that they were very/fairly confident in the effectiveness of the criminal justice system. London and the Regions in the South and East of England recorded more positive levels of positive public perception than the rest of the country, where broadly similar rates were observed on both measures.