official statistics

• cannot possibly be accurate due to unreported and recorded crimes
• useful at looking at trends and patterns
• first ever published in France in 1827
• crime rates in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century were very low, until they started to rise in 1950s. after 1990, there was a decline, before rising again
• new crimes are added as they become legislation
• police often massage down statistics, crime is unrecorded, cases dropped without victim's knowledge
• some minor offences heard within magistrates are not included in police statistics
• crime mapping and police targeting, is this justified?
• HMIC 1 in 5 crimes does not get recorded by police