Monday 1 March 2010

Just a thought

Official figures reveal that overall crime in England & Wales fell 8% in the last quarter of 2009, compared to the same quarter in 2008:

Crime in England and Wales fell 8% in the third quarter of 2009 compared with the year before, the Home Office says.

The latest figures on recorded offences show there was an 8% drop in burglaries.

Car crime fell by a fifth and the number of robberies showed a reduction of 9%.

Ministers say the British Crime Survey's separate study reveals that the risk of being a victim of crime has reached its lowest recorded level.

According to the quarterly crime figures covering July to September 2009, there were falls in all categories of recorded crime over the period, with the exception of sexual offences which rose 5%.

Home Office experts say they do not know why sexual offences rose although police chiefs have been encouraging more women to come forward to report complaints. (1)

Which is great, of course, because less crime is always a good thing. But the 'expert' opinion on why sexual offences rose did prompt me to wonder - as I am sure many have before - why is it that a drop in crime rates is always attributed to better policing, but a rise is explained by better reporting?
1 - "Crime figures show 8% fall in England and Wales," by Dominic Casciani. Published by the BBC, 21st of January, 2010. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8472007.stm)

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