T Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) formerly the British Crime Survey or BCS is a systematic victim study. In the 2010/11 BCS, around 51,000 people were interviewed, that is, around 47,000 adults aged 16 or over in the main survey and a further 4,000 interviews conducted with children aged 10 to 15.
The results were produced on a 4 yearly basis until 2001 since then they have been collected quarterly and published annually.
Another form of measurement is Police Recorded Crime. A comparison of the the figures produced by the 2 methods can be seen below.
Figure 1 Police recorded and CSEW crimes 2011/12, by crime type
The headline crime statistics also draw on other sources including incidents of anti-social behaviour recorded by the police and crimes dealt with by the courts, which are not covered in the main police recorded crime count or by the CSEW.
Box 1.1 Strengths and limitations of the Crime Survey and police recorded crime
| Crime Survey for England and Wales | Police recorded crime | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Strengths | Limitations | Strengths | Limitations |
| Large nationally representative sample survey which provides a good measure of long-term trends for the crime types and the population it covers (for example those resident in households) | Survey is subject to error associated with sampling and respondents recalling past events | Has wider offence coverage and population coverage than the CSEW | Excludes offences that are not reported to, or not recorded by, the police and does not include less serious offences dealt with by magistrates courts (e.g. motoring offences) |
| Consistent methodology over time | Excludes crimes against businesses and those not resident in households (e.g. residents of institutions and visitors) | Good measure of offences that are well-reported to the police | Trends can be influenced by changes in recording practices or police activity |
| Covers crimes not reported to the police and is not affected by changes in police recording practice; is therefore a better measure of long term trends | Headline estimates exclude offences that are difficult to estimate robustly (such as sexual offences) or that have no victim who can be interviewed (e.g. homicides, and drug offences) | Is the primary source of local crime statistics and for lower-volume crimes (e.g. homicide) | Not possible to make long-term comparisons due to fundamental changes in recording practice introduced in 1998 and 2002/032 |
| Coverage of survey extended in 2009 to include children aged 10-15 resident in households | Provides whole counts (rather than estimates that are subject to sampling variation) | ||
| Independent collection of crime figures | Time lag between occurrence of crime and reporting results tends to be short, providing an indication of emerging trends | ||
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