Crime statistics in the UK.

The most recent crime statistics released by the Office for National Statistics(ONS) in the UK made interesting reading. Overall, crime against individuals and households has decreased over the last 10 years, with the latest Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimating there were 9.5 million incidents of crime including areas such as theft, robbery, criminal damage, fraud, computer misuse, and acts of violence in the last 12 months. Interestingly, the level of violent crime is at the lowest level since records began in 1981.

However, the crime statistics are at odds with the perceptions of crime in the UK. An Ipsos poll released this year on public perceptions of crime found that 62% of Britons believe that crime has increased nationally in the past 12 months. Nearly half the UK population (43%) are worried about being a victim of crime, with 12% saying they are ‘very worried’. This is an example of availability bias, where people make judgements based on information that is easily available to them. For example, lots of crime is reported in the media, so people often assume that crime is worse now than it was in the past.

The economic causes and consequences of crime in the UK are interesting and wide-ranging. Some highlights from the most recent data on crime in the UK include:

• Shoplifting has increased significantly over the last 12 months. Last year, the annual cost to retailers of shoplifting was $2.5 billion, which is about $150 in a UK household's shopping bill.
• There has been an increase in personal theft in the UK, which has been attributed to the number of package deliveries being stolen from outside people’s homes. This has occurred because of the growth in online shopping.
• Cybercrime has increased significantly. Hackers, fraudsters, and scammers are involved in online criminal activity. Examples include individuals who have been ‘scammed’ for money in their bank accounts, and businesses that have had their computer systems hacked and forced to pay hackers to correct their systems 

The changing nature of and perception of crime have important economic implications that affect different stakeholders in the UK.

Households spend more money on household security products such as doorbell cameras, CCTV and security gates. For businesses, crime can push up costs as they have, for example, to invest in new cybersecurity measures. For the government, changes like crime affect the police and the criminal justice system. The rise in shoplifting in the UK has become a political issue, and the government is under pressure to deal with it.

Possible questions for discussion

1. In the context of crime, what do you understand by the term availability bias?
2. What markets in the economy benefit from crime?
3. How does crime affect different stakeholders in the economy?
4. Discuss the benefits of the government spending more money on the police service to reduce crime.