Criminology P2
The Home Office is a department part of the government who are in charge of immigration; security as well as law and order (e.g. the police) in the UK. Meaning they are in charge of any British visas, and even special security services like MI5.
The British Crime Survey (BCS) now known as the CSEW, is a survey in which people living in areas of England and Wales are interviewed about any experiences with things they perceive to be criminal activity anytime during the year. Both adults and children (aged from 10-15) are interviewed. The survey is conducted on around 38,000 people every year. The highest number of crime that is reported are vandalism, vehicle related theft, household thefts and assault.
In 2008/09 the BCS reported
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The lowest was bicycle theft with only 540 cases. This is because household items being stolen are very serious as there would have had to be a break into someone’s personal home putting them in great danger. Whereas a bike being taken is a relatively small crime and not seen as too important or life threatening because bikes are easily replaceable, certain household items may not be so.
As for the police, the highest number of crime reported was theft offences at 1,080.7 cases reported; this can be a simple act to commit in some cases and is a regular occurring crime meaning it’s reported often. Sexual assault was the lowest reported crime. Only 51.5 cases were reported in 2008. This could be because the majority of sexual abuse victims would feel too ashamed to tell anyone what had happened to them.
The overall number recorded by the police is much lower than the BCS/CSEW because a lot of the crimes people report to the BCS about are not reported to the police unless thought to be very serious. People are also more likely to report the truth to the BCS than the police. The BCS release reports of all crimes they are notified of, however the police always prioritise only the serious crimes above all