Crime rates drop despite recession fears
The continuing recession sparked many fears that crime levels would soar in response, but experts have been surprised to note that in fact the opposite has occurred and crime levels have dropped to their lowest in almost 30 years.
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Figures from the British Crime Survey showed that crimes during 2009/10 had fallen from 10.5 million to 9.6 million. And this figure was below the 10 million mark for the first time on record.
During Labour's 13 years in government, crime fell by 43 per cent. There had been a notable decrease in offences such as theft, burglary and fraud.
In terms of fraud, there had been a two per cent decrease in credit card frauds and a 16 per cent decrease in fraud losses.
The number of offences overall had dropped from 5,977,000 to 5,427,000 - a decrease of nine per cent.
In 2009/10 police recorded their lowest number of murders since 2007. There were 615, which was a decrease of six per cent.
Domestic burglaries were down by nine per cent and vehicle crimes down by 19 per cent.
However some types of crime such as violent crime, wounding, violence without injury and mugging had increased slightly.
Home Office chief statistician David Blunt was surprised by some of the figures, but noted that alarm systems, door and window locks and car immobilisers were responsible for the drop in crime rates.
He said: "There is no single definitive explanation and it seems likely that a number of different factors have contributed in different ways."
Do you think that crime has reduced despite the recession or do you still see as much crime on the streets as ever? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.
