Why It Matters Crime
Summary
We have measured the rate at which all reported crimes occur in each postcode area.
Definition
A notifiable crime in the UK is any crime that must be reported to the Home Office by the police. This generally includes the following: violence, damage, possession of weapons, robbery, burglary, forgery, data fraud, obscenity, drugs possession, sexual offences, and serious road traffic offences such as driving under the influence.
Interpretation
| Dataset | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Postcode Population | This is the total number of people residing in your postcode. |
| Total Notifiable Offences per 1000 Inhabitants | This is the total number of reported notifiable offences (crimes) that occur in your area per 1000 inhabitants. |
| Violence Against The Person per 1000 Inhabitants | This is the total number of reported violent crimes commited against the person that occur in your area per 1000 inhabitants. |
| Sexual Offences per 1000 Inhabitants | This is the total number of reported sexual offences that occur in your area per 1000 inhabitants. |
| Robbery per 1000 Inhabitants | This is the total number of reported robberies that occur in your area per 1000 inhabitants. |
| Burglary per 1000 Inhabitants | This is the total number of reported burglaries that occur in your area per 1000 inhabitants. |
| Theft and Handling per 1000 Inhabitants | This is the total number of reported incidents of theft or handling of stolen goods that occur in your area per 1000 inhabitants. |
| Fraud Or Forgery per 1000 Inhabitants | This is the total number of reported incidents forgery that occur in your area per 1000 inhabitants. |
| Criminal Damage per 1000 Inhabitants | This is the total number of reported incidents of criminal damage that occur in your area per 1000 inhabitants. |
| Drug Crimes per 1000 Inhabitants | This is the total number of reported incidents of drug related crime that occur in your area per 1000 inhabitants. |
| Other Notifiable Offences per 1000 Inhabitants | This is the total number of other notifiable criminal offences that occur in your area per 1000 inhabitants. |
Why the metric matters from a commercial inhabitant’s perspective
Home Office evidence suggest that circa 75 percent of businesses that experienced crime in 2017 did not have the necessary security measures to prevent such crime happening until after the crime had occurred. Understanding the likelihood of crime happening in your area is important to know so that you can protect your business accordingly.
The higher the likelihood of crime, the more precautions must be taken to secure your business and its assets against costly crimes such as burglary, vandalism, fraud and cybercrime. Even if criminals are not successful in breaking and entering your business premises, the damages of their attempts can still be extremely costly as not all insurance providers will cover all kinds of damage.
Cybercrime is an often overlooked form of criminal activity that is becoming increasingly prevalent, and can be significantly more costly than other more traditional forms of crime. Furthermore, the effect of crime can have a lasting effect on staff, with victims suffering emotional distress (69 percent), experiencing a loss of income (42 percent) and fearing that they will become a victim again (33 percent). Statistics show that wholesalers are particularly vulnerable to crime, so if you operate in this market you may want to consider spending a little more on security than might you think you need.
Why the metric matters from a residential inhabitant’s perspective
Residential inhabitants will want to know how likely crime is to occur in a given area if they are thinking of moving to a new area and want to check the relative safety of the location. Knowing the prevalence of crime will give a good indication of things that are and aren’t safe to do in a given area, such as walking home at night, leaving a bike locked outside your property, how safe it is to park your vehicle in your neighbourhood, and how much you need to spend on security at your home.
(Photograph: Hma6112, Wikimedia Commons)
General Commentary
Towards the beginning of 2018, London featured in the headlines of British newspapers frequently due to a surge in violent crime across the city. This was alarming to many, since crime had previously been in decline for years. A number of factors have contributed to this; most notably is the drop in police officers across England and Wales.
The Metropolitan Police has 2000 fewer officers than it did 8 years previously in 2010, and police forces have also been expected to operate on significantly lower budgets. Other critics have noted the cuts to community services and youth centres as a major contributor to the crime wave, with others claiming that police powers are not extensive enough and must be reconsidered. The Met has since established a new violent crime task force, increased the use of stop and search, and have begun to see results already.
Trivia
A watershed moment in the history of policing occurred on July 22, 1910 when police were alerted to the location of one Dr. Crippen, who had murdered his wife and fled to Canada. The captain of the ship that Crippen fled on recognised his face from a wanted poster and sent a message via Morse code from the ship to notify the police.
History
Crime began to be tackled on an organised, nation-wide scale with the establishment of the new police force across the UK in the 1850s. Crime began to steadily decline the years after, and the majority of crimes were petty theft, drunkenness, and disorderly behaviour.
Due to the low instances of murder, by the beginning of Queen Victoria’s reign, many of the previous few centuries’ brutal punishments had disappeared, such as capital punishment. It only remained in place for those who committed murder or treason. Instead the government attempted to rehabilitate criminals by imprisoning them, forcing them to work, and providing them with occasional visits by religious officials.
By the end of the 18th century, doctors and psychiatrists came to be seen as more important to the reformation of criminals, and thus the extensive study of criminology entered full swing. This was also the time that detective policing began to rise to a prominent role in policing, and the mythical character Sherlock Holmes became immensely popular throughout the UK, creating an ideal of law enforcement that still persists to this day. From this a new form of policing arose: that of the constable patrolling the streets on foot, enforcing the law wherever it was transgressed.