Blears defends British Crime Survey
The Home Office Minister Hazel Blears has strongly defended the Government’s use of the British Crime Survey (BCS).
Her comments come in response to a report from the Crime and Society Foundation, which sharply criticises the Government’s usage of the measure.
The BCS is an annual survey of around 40,000 individuals, in which participants are asked whether they have been a victim of certain crimes over the past year. It is widely used as an authoritative measure of crime, as it covers those crimes which were not reported to the police.
However, today’s report argues that the BCS says little about “a range of crimes, including sexual assaults, crimes against children, and white collar crime”.
As such, it also claims that the Government’s focus on tackling prolific offenders risks ignoring other crimes, like domestic violence and sexual assaults, which do not often come to the attention of authorities.
It claims that the assertion that some 100,000 persistent offenders are responsible for half of all crime is “manifestly incorrect” as it is based on information about those who are convicted of crime, not those who commit it. The report suggests that the idea that just a few individuals commit crime is a “reassuring myth.”
As a result, ministers “stretch credibility” by using the survey as a basis for claims about crime as a whole, the report argues.
Commenting on the report, Ms Blears said that the BCS is an accurate measure of overall crime rates, even if it does not measures all offences, adding that even in the areas not covered by the survey – such as youth offending and white collar crime – the evidence is that crime is remaining stable.
“Without [the BCS] people would not know how effective crime reduction measures are, or, more importantly, could have unhealthy fears about the levels of crime they face,” she said.
“The Home Office is absolutely determined to take on those who want to undermine it.”
She admitted that the BCS did not cover all types of crime. However, the Home Office had never claimed that it did, and had in fact been very clear about which types were left out, she said.
In addition, for the most common crimes that it did not cover – crime against under-16s and businesses – there was no evidence that they were rising.
“Nonetheless, they are problems which the Government takes seriously. The Home Office has carried out recent research (soon to be published) on both areas, which will provide greater insight into the nature of these other crimes,” she said.
