Burglaries may be three times higher than reported

Survey for England and Wales tracks crime rates

LEVELS of home break-ins in Leicestershire may be almost three times higher than reported to the police.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales tracks crime rates by asking people if they have been a victim of crime in the past year, which can include crimes that weren’t reported to the police.

Those surveyed in the Leicestershire police force area said they had experienced domestic burglaries at a rate equivalent to 38.2 incidents for every 1,000 households in 2017/18 - 2.6 times higher than the 14.8 crimes for every 1,000 households actually reported to the police.

To put it another way, it means one in 26 homes in Leicestershire could have burgled last year, compared to one in 67 homes that was reported to the police as being burgled.

Levels of violent crime in the police force area may also be higher than reported, with 22.6 incidences of violence reported per 1,000 people in the survey, compared to 20.5 crimes for every 1,000 people reported to the police.

The survey also suggested that people in Leicestershire are more likely to experience thefts than reports to the police indicate - with 15.8 crimes per 1,000 people in the survey, compared to 0.7 crimes per 1,000 people reported to the police.

Robberies were also happening at a potentially higher level than reported, with those surveyed saying they experienced the crime at a rate of 6 crimes per 1,000 people compared to the 0.8 robberies reported to the police per 1,000 people.

Certain crimes such as fraud and computer misuse are not published as separate categories in police recorded crime figures, but are included in the survey.

The survey also asked how many people had been victims of fraud in the past year, with the equivalent of one in 13 people in saying they had been a victim of the crime in 2017/18 - 78.4 incidents per 1,000 people.

As well as this, people in the area reported computer misuse crimes at a rate of 10 crimes per 1,000 people, the equivalent of one in 100 people being victims last year.

The number of people surveyed in each police force area can be quite small so the estimates of crime levels should be treated with caution as levels will depend on the experiences of those who were surveyed and how representative that is of everyone living in the area.

Across England and Wales, the survey found there were 3.4 robberies per 1,000 people in 2017/18, which is almost three times the rate of crime reported to police - 1.3 robberies per 1,000 people.

There were 9.1 thefts per 1,000 people across England and Wales last year. This was five times the level of crime being reported to police (1.7 per 1,000 people).

The survey also suggests levels of burglary are twice what is reported to police.

In 2017/18, there were 28.1 burglaries per 1,000 households compared to 12.6 per 1,000 households being reported to the police.

As well as this, violent crime was reported to the police at a rate of 23.9 crimes per 1,000 people. However, victims said they experienced it at a rate of 27.1 incidents per 1,000 people.

The survey also indicates that one in every 14 people were victims of fraud last year, with 69.7 fraud crimes per 1,000 people.