Crime stats give us important information, but it’s important to understand what’s behind the headlines, here’s why:

Statistics can be confusing:

I don’t know about you, but I get bamboozled by statistics! I love stats actually, they’re essential for collecting data, so that we know where we are. And they can be used to illustrate just about anything. It can be easy to misunderstand them though. You could say that the old saying is true, there really are lies, the other sort of lies and statistics!! When statistical data is translated into relative facts and put into headlines it can be very confusing.

We've recently seen positive headline figures from The Office for National Statistics, showing that crime rates have fallen. They're down by 7% in accordance with Police records and 9% in accordance with The Crime Survey for England and Wales. Thing is, we could have to wade through loads of info to find out what that actually means. Any fall in crime is great, but there are so many types of crime, an overall fall in crime stats could hide all sorts of things. To enable us to protect our loved ones and our property could it be helpful to have a bit more clarity?

Statistics in crime stats reports are very useful...

Statistics have never been more important than in today’s mad busy world. So much to do, so much information to base our actions on, and as ever so little time to figure it all out. As well as being central to running the whole country, at a micro level stats help us to run our households and our businesses. They can be misunderstood though, so it’s a good idea to check what’s behind a statistic before acting on it.

Few of us have the time or the appetite for combing through the detail of national crime stats. That’s just not realistic. It’s helpful then to have a few simple rules for reading these, a bit like checking the axis on a graph (ie does it start at zero, or at a higher or lower figure). That will help you to be better informed about where to spend your security budget. What I look out for are simple things like:

What time period are the figures talking about? In the case of the recent news about crime stats, it’s the year that ended March 2013.

Also crucially important is knowing whether they’re talking about estimates (gleaned from interviews with households / resident adults), or actual recorded crimes. The estimated figure in England and Wales for this period is 8.6 million. This stat fell by 9% in the year under review.

If, however, the headlines are based on reported crime the numbers are very different. This was recorded at 3.7 million in this 12 month period. The fall in reported crime in the year was 7%. You could say that’s only a difference in the amount of fall of 2%, but we’re talking about millions of crimes here, so 2% = a lot of crime and a lot of victims. Also, it should be remembered this figure doesn’t include crimes described as less serious, such as speeding offences. Forgive me if your brain is starting to hurt! Or if the matchsticks are no longer keeping your eyes propped open…. There’s more:

At the same time it’s reported there were 0.8 million more crimes against children aged 10 to 15 in this time. That’s especially confusing, as it doesn’t say how many incidents in total were crimes against children. It doesn’t tell us the percentage rise either, which we could use to work out the total figure.

We do know though that 3.1 million of the 3.7 million recorded crimes were victim based! That figure fell 9% compared to the previous year. Another way of looking at it is that there were 55 recorded offences for every 1,000 of us in the population. So 5.5% of us have been victims of crime. I think that’s quite high, and in reality is bound to be more, given the huge disparity between the estimated and recorded figures.

Stats are open to interpretation

As with everything in life, there will also be an element of our own interpretation of the figures. We can be inclined, naturally, to hear or see what we want to take on board. Maybe that’s the point though, at least partly, of the crime stats. And the point of the broad brush headlines. Any fall in total numbers is good and in this round of stats we’ve seen falls in many numbers! We’re right to feel good about this. And more confident about going about our daily routines. It could be argued this could have a knock on positive effect of increased confidence in sectors, and help to get us all moving forward again, out of the doldrums. Confidence is key!!

Crime stats and your security

Having confidence in our security systems is important too. Knowing your business is protected from becoming yet another burglary statistic gives real peace of mind. It’ll save you a fortune too. It'll also allow you to concentrate on running your business - and living your life! Top quality kit and service from a leading specialist is a great investment. In fact, one of the best investments you’ll ever make. People talk a lot about crime stats. To make sure you can look at these objectively in future, hire an expert installer to provide a security system that really works. What you don’t want to do is look at crime stats, especially burglary stats, subjectively, as the victim of yet another break-in. Quality and expertise, we keep coming back to that. It can’t be overstated, it’s essential to keep you and your business out of the burglary statistics.

Summary

So it’s great we have access to the crime statistics, and that our media fill many column inches with opinion and comment on the stats. We would be much worse off without this information, however ‘airbrushed’ to fit the story of the day. One of our most natural instincts is to protect what we hold dear. The fact crimes are measured in millions shows how important it is to take our security seriously. Armed with solid information about the reality of the world around us helps us to be well informed and better able to make decisions about the security of our loved ones and our property.

Get a FREE site survey

Our team are ready to take your call and walk you through the various ways in which we can protect you, your property and assets. For a FREE site survey, please get in touch with our team today.