Crime Of The Century - A Chilling Look At Crime Statistics In The UK


• Two models, or approaches, to crime recording seem to co-exist: the prima facie model, where details of allegations are accepted without scrutiny, and the evidential model, where details require to be substantiated before a crime record is made.


• While it is not possible to ‘position’ forces as proponents of either approach, a number are actively trying to reject the evidential model, and adopt the prima facie model. Their stated aim is to encourage ‘integrity’ in crime recording.


Tracking calls made to the police


The results of the ‘tracking exercise’, which monitored the outcome of calls made to the police, were that:


• Across all the cases reviewed, 47 per cent of crime allegations were eventually recorded as crimes. In one force this proportion rose to 55 per cent, but in another it was as low as 33 per cent. This proportion is consistent with that found in the mid- 1980s, suggesting that developments like computerisation and increased management control have not increased the proportion of allegations 'crimed'.


• The difference between ‘definite’ alleged crimes and ‘possible’ alleged crimes was significant: 71 per cent of the former were formally recorded, but only 34 per cent of the latter. This finding suggests the evidential approach is widely applied by police forces.


• Allegations relating to ‘completed’ crimes were more likely to be recorded than those relating to ‘attempts’. Those reported by victims, or by others on their behalf, were also more likely to be recorded than those reported by witnesses.


• The likelihood of any allegation being recorded as a crime varied considerably according to the nature of the alleged offence. Property crimes are consistently more likely to be recorded than personal offences (mainly allegations of violence). Amongst property offences, allegations relating to burglary and thefts of (or from) vehicles are more likely to be recorded than allegations of vandalism.


• It was not possible to judge whether the decision not to record a crime was correctly, or incorrectly, made – but subsequent assessment of these incident reports shows that there are some common difficulties, or circumstances, which account for the decision not to record a crime.


• In about one in five (21%) of those cases where crimes were recorded by the police, these appeared to be classified quite differently from the initial allegation made to the police. These changes may however result from the subsequent investigations carried out by the police.


• Interviews with station officers, who receive crime allegations at station front desks, indicate that they tend to pass on all serious crime allegations to operational police officers or CMUs. As a consequence, they only deal with non-priority matters.


• Station officers, like their police counterparts, seem inclined to apply ‘evidential standards’ to any crime allegations made by members of the public. If however the victim is adamant that a crime has occurred, they tend to accept this view.


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