On whom does the burden of crime fall now? Changes over time in counts and concentration.

Abstract

A recent publication (Ignatans and Pease, 2015) sought to examine the changed distribution of crime across households in England and Wales over a period encompassing that of the crime drop common to Western countries (1982–2012). It was found that while crime against the most victimised households declined most in absolute terms, the proportion of all crime accounted for by those most victimised increased somewhat. The characteristics associated with highly victimised households were found to be consistent across survey sweeps. The pattern suggested the continued relevance to crime reduction generally of prioritising repeat crimes against the same target. The present paper analyses the changed distribution of crime by offence type. Data were extracted from a total of almost 600,000 respondents from all sweeps of the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) 1982–2012 to determine which types of victimisation became more or less concentrated across households during the overall crime drop. Methodological issues underlying the patterns observed are discussed. Cross-national and crime type extension of work of the kind undertaken here are advocated as both intrinsically important and likely to clarify the dynamics of the crime drop.