Do we have a "rising violent crime rate" in the UK? The latest recorded crime statistics for 2007 show violence against the person down 1% and sexual offences down 7%, total recorded crime down 2%. Admittedly these figures probably don't represent the true picture since not everything gets reported.
I don't profess to be anything of an expert on that, and two different improvements in crime reporting has increased the number of reported crimes, but my understanding from looking at statistics from your home office is that overall, if you look at the last few years, the crime rate has been increasing.
'Violent crime' - Long-term national recorded crime trend
Sexual offences' - Long-term national recorded crime trend
I know there is also the British Crime Survey, which relies on interviews of a sample of the population, rather than officially reported crimes, and this shows a decline in violent crime, but curiously "Violent crime, as measured by the BCS, includes common assault, wounding, robbery and snatch theft. It does not include homicide (as the victims cannot be surveyed) and other types of violent crime, like firearms offences" which doesn't make it very useful for discussions of this sort.
Still, I'm pretty sure the number of firearm incidents is much statistically much lower over here than in the US.
Oh, absolutely. But this has always been the case historically, regardless of what your country's gun laws have been. The UK in general has overall, relative to the US, always had a lower rate of violent crime, again regardless of what your country's gun laws have been.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2008-04-28 07:14 pm (UTC)The latest recorded crime statistics for 2007 show violence against the person down 1% and sexual offences down 7%, total recorded crime down 2%. Admittedly these figures probably don't represent the true picture since not everything gets reported.
I don't profess to be anything of an expert on that, and two different improvements in crime reporting has increased the number of reported crimes, but my understanding from looking at statistics from your home office is that overall, if you look at the last few years, the crime rate has been increasing.
'Violent crime' - Long-term national recorded crime trend
Sexual offences' - Long-term national recorded crime trend
I know there is also the British Crime Survey, which relies on interviews of a sample of the population, rather than officially reported crimes, and this shows a decline in violent crime, but curiously "Violent crime, as measured by the BCS, includes common assault, wounding, robbery and snatch theft. It does not include homicide (as the victims cannot be surveyed) and other types of violent crime, like firearms offences" which doesn't make it very useful for discussions of this sort.
Still, I'm pretty sure the number of firearm incidents is much statistically much lower over here than in the US.
Oh, absolutely. But this has always been the case historically, regardless of what your country's gun laws have been. The UK in general has overall, relative to the US, always had a lower rate of violent crime, again regardless of what your country's gun laws have been.