Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW)

Summary

The survey provides a better reflection of the extent of household and personal crime than police recorded statistics because the survey includes crimes that are not reported to, or recorded by, the police. The survey is also a better indicator of long-term trends because it is unaffected by changes in levels of reporting to the police or police recording practices. However, the survey does not aim to provide an absolute count of crime and has notable exceptions, including homicides and incidents against those living in communal establishments or people who are homeless. The main survey count of crime also does not include fraud, sexual offences or drug use. However, these are covered in additional modules within the survey and are reported on separately. The study includes information from the adult and child questionnaires. Adults: • The adult non-victim form questionnaire covered: perceptions of crime and local area; performance of the CJS; mobile phone and bicycle crime; experiences of the police (Module A); attitudes to the CJS (Module B); crime prevention and security (Module C); ad-hoc crime topics (Module D); plastic card fraud; mass-marketing fraud; anti-social behaviour; demographics and media. • The adult victim form contains offence-level data. Up to six different incidents were asked about for each respondent. Each of these constituted a separate victim form and can be matched back to the respondent-level data. Topics covered included: the nature and circumstances of the incident; details of offenders; security measures; costs; emotional reactions; contact with the CJS; and outcomes where known. • Self-completion modules for adult respondents covered drug use, drinking behaviour, and interpersonal violence (IPV) (domestic violence, sexual victimisation and stalking). The data are subject to Special Licence/Secure Access conditions. Children: • The child questionnaire included: schooling and perceptions of crime; crime screener questions – personal incidents only; victimisation module; perceptions of and attitudes towards the police; anti-social behaviour; and crime prevention and security. • The child self-completion questionnaire covered: use of the internet; bullying; street gangs; school truancy; personal security; drinking behaviour and cannabis use. Data from the child self-completion questions are also available only under Special Licence access.

Type of data

Data Source
Survey

Type of Study
Crosssection regular

Data gathering method
Face-to-face
Self administered questionnaire

Access to data

Conditions of access
Data are available from the UK Data Service (previously the Economic and Social Data Service, ESDS): http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/ The website contains detailed information on conditions of access, and it is also possible to contact the UK Data Service by phone: +44 (0)1206 872143, or by email: help@ukdataservice.ac.uk

Type of available data (e.g. anonymised microdata, aggregated tables, etc.)
Anonymised microdata

Formats available
Survey data from the UK Data Service are usually available to download in SPSS, Stata and tab-delimited (suitable for use in MS Excel) formats.

Coverage

Coverage Years of collection, reference years, and sample sizes
The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), previously known as the British Crime Survey (BCS), has been in existence since 1981. Up to 2001, the survey was conducted biennially. From April 2001, interviewing was carried out continually and reported on in financial year cycles and the crime reference period was altered to accommodate this change. The core sample size has increased from around 11,000 in the earlier cycles to over 40,000. Following the National Statistician's Review of Crime Statistics in June 2011 the collation and publication of Crime Statistics moved to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) from 1st April 2012, and the survey changed its name to the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) accordingly. Scottish data: The 1982 and 1988 BCS waves were also conducted in Scotland. The England and Wales data for 1982 and 1988 are held at the UK Data Archive, but the Scottish data for these studies are held separately. Since 1993, separate Scottish Crime and Justice Surveys have been conducted. Number of units sampled in 2011/2012: 46,031 adults and 3,930 children `Note: Older people are represented in this data source (approximately) according to their proportion in the population. In 2011, over one third of the total UK population (and approximately 40 per cent of the adult population 16+) was aged 50 and over.`

First year of collection
1981/1982

Stratification if applicable
The data includes a variety of demographic variables, including age and sex. The sample is stratified.

Base used for sampling

Geographical coverage and breakdowns
Countries (England, Wales) Government Office Regions (NUTS1)

Age range
Adults aged 16 years and over, and children aged 10-15 years

Statistical representativeness
Other, please specify

Coverage of main and cross-cutting topics
The Crime Survey for England and Wales (formerly British Crime Survey) asks people aged 16 and over living in households in England and Wales about their experiences of crime in the last 12 months. These experiences are used to estimate levels of crime in England and Wales. Until recently the survey did not cover crimes against those aged under 16, but since January 2009 it has also interviewed children aged 10 to 15. The survey asks respondents to the survey about their attitudes to crime-related issues such as: • the police; • the criminal justice system; • their perceptions of crime and anti-social behaviour. The results of the survey play an important role in informing government policy. The survey traditionally asks a sole randomly selected adult in a random sample of households, details pertaining to any instances where they, or the household, have been a victim of a crime in the previous 12 months. These are recorded in the victim form data file (VF). A wide range of questions are then asked covering demographics and crime-related subjects such as attitudes to the police and the criminal justice system (CJS). Most of the questionnaire is completed in a face-to-face interview in the respondent's home; these variables are contained within the non-victim form (NVF) data file. Since 2009, the survey has been extended to children aged 10-15 years old; one resident of that age range has also been selected at random from the household and asked about incidents where they have been a victim of crime, and other related topics. The first set of children's data, covering January-December 2009, had experimental status, and is held separately in the Archive. From 2009-2010, the children's data cover the same period as the adult data and are included with the main dataset. A series of questions on drinking behaviour, drug use and intimate personal violence (including stalking and sexual victimisation) are administered to adults via a self-completion module which the respondent completes on a laptop computer. Children aged 10-15 years also complete a separate self-completion questionnaire. The questions are contained within the main questionnaire documents, but the data are available under Special Licence/Secure Access conditions from the UK Data Archive. Lower-level geographic variables are also available under Special Licence conditions to match to the survey. See individual survey years for further details.

Linkage

Standardisation
There is an ongoing cross-governmental programme of work in the UK which aims to develop and improve standardised inputs and outputs for use in official statistics. This is known as harmonisation, and is led by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). While this work primarily affects government-run surveys, the results have an impact on most national UK data sources. Furthermore, harmonisation has important benefits for all researchers using these surveys, and not just government statisticians. For more information, see: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/harmonisation/harmonisation-index-page/index.html Further information is not readily available.

Possibility of linkage among databases
Data are anonymised

Data quality

Entry errors if applicable
In addition to unit non-response, the data include item non-response and may be subject to other errors that are typical of surveys and censuses. This data source is used to prepare official statistics, which are required to meet quality standards. These standards are monitored by the UK Statistics Authority, according to the statutory authority provided by the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/national-statistician/producers-of-official-statistics/index.html http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/national-statistician/types-of-official-statistics/index.html For more information on data quality, see the survey documentation on the UK Data Service website.

Breaks
There are no major breaks for this data source.

Consistency of terminology or coding used during collection
In general, the consistency of this data source is good. For more information on data quality, see the survey documentation on the UK Data Service website.

Governance

Contact information
Office for National Statistics
Customer Contact Centre
Government Buildings, Cardiff Road
NP10 8XG Newport, South Wales United Kingdom Phone: +44 (0) 1633 455678.
Email: crimestatistics(at)ONS.gov.uk
Url: http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/

Timeliness, transparency
Data are available about 9 months after the end of fieldwork