Crime Survey for England and Wales (formerly the British Crime Survey)
April 2012: the British Crime Survey (BCS) changes its name to the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW)
Following the Home Secretary's acceptance of the recommendations of the National Statistician's Review of Crime Statistics (June 2011), the collation and publication of Crime Statistics has moved to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) from 1 April 2012. The British Crime Survey has changed its name to the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) accordingly, to better reflect its coverage. See the ONS Release: Crime Statistics, period ending December 2011 web page for further details.
The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) is
one of the largest social surveys conducted in Britain. It is currently carried
out by the British Market Research Bureau (BMRB).
The CSEW is primarily a 'victimisation'
survey, in which respondents are asked about the experiences of property crimes
of the household (e.g. burglary) and personal crimes (e.g. theft from the person)
which they themselves have experienced. The reference period to which these
questions relate is from the first of January in the calendar year preceding
the CSEW, up to the date of interview. The reference period and indeed the wording
of the series of questions, which are asked to elicit victimisation experiences,
have been held constant throughout the series of CSEW surveys.
Because members of the public are
asked directly about victimisation, the CSEW provides a record of the experience
of crime which is unaffected by variations in the behaviour of victims about
reporting the incident to the police and variations over time and between places
in the police practices about recording crime. The scope of the CSEW goes well
beyond the counting of criminal incidents, although it is for this estimate
that it has become established as a definitive source of information. In order
to classify incidents, the CSEW collects extensive information about the victims
of crime, the circumstances in which incidents occur and the behaviour of offenders
in committing crimes. In this way, the survey provides information to inform
crime reduction measures and to gauge their effectiveness. The CSEW has been
successful at developing special measures to estimate the extent of domestic
violence, stalking and sexual victimisation, which are probably the least-reported
to the police but among the most serious of crimes in their impact on victims.
Up to 2001, eight waves of the CSEW
were carried out in England and Wales: 1982, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998
and 2000. From 2001, the series became annual instead of biennial.
The Office for National Statistics website and Home Office website contain some detailed information about the survey.
Recent data
