Violent crime ‘on the up’
New Home Office figures suggest the overall rate of crime in the UK continued to fall in the last year to April.
But the violent crime rate, as recorded by police in England and Wales, increased, figures showed.
Before adjustment, there was a 22% increase in violent crime and a 27% rise in female rape from 8,990 to 11,441 cases.
However, accounting for part of the disturbing increase is the National Crime Recording Standard, implemented last April, which now means more crime is recorded, including many more minor offences.
The adjusted figure is slightly less shocking. According to this, violent crime rose 2% year-on-year.
Similarly, the murder rate in England and Wales now stands at 1,048, the highest ever recorded.
But once the heinous murders of Harold Shipman are taken into consideration the rate is consistent with previous figures.
Residents in the capital experienced the most violent crime with 32 offences per 1,000, while the South East had the lowest, 13 offences per 1,000.
The highest overall crime rate per county was recorded in Nottinghamshire with 159 offences per 1,000 population.
Alongside the study by the Home Office comes the British Crime Survey, the preferred indicator of crime levels for government ministers and many experts.
The BCS found the adjusted recorded crime rate had also fallen, though the eight-year trend appeared to be flattening out.
The study, which asked 40,000 for their attitudes to crime and the police, found around 75% of those surveyed believed crime had increased in the last two years.
Responding to the figures, Shadow Home Secretary Oliver Letwin said: “The rise in violent crime is extremely worrying, and shows yet again that the government is making no headway at all in tackling disorder.”
Playing down such concerns, the former Home Office Minister and current chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, John Denham, warned that the media often exaggerated the actual level of crime.
Mr Denham said that the public should be cautious about drawing too many conclusions from the apparent link between fear of crime and tabloid papers.
‘It is not clear what these figures are telling us because sensational perhaps salacious crime reporting has been in the British newspaper industry since the old penny dreadful.
‘The bigger problem we have got, and it is not restricted to the tabloids, is a tendency to go for the highest, most sensational figures which come out rather than a balanced report.’
He stressed: ‘Crime overall is down and the most authoritative report on violent crime says that it is stable and unchanged.’
Responding to the 27% increased in reported rape, Home Office Minister Hazel Blears insisted that it was “actually good news”, adding: “More and more women now feel confident enough to report rape.’
‘We’ve got a number of sexual referral centres right across the country, much better doctors, much better medical examinations, so that women are now coming forward in increasing numbers.’
She insisted that there was now better treatment of women who claimed to have been raped in police stations, with special custody suites being introduced.
Ms. Blears also claimed that in the past it was estimated that 90% of women did not report serious sexual assaults.
