Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

This teaching dataset is based on the Crime Survey for England and Wales, 2017-2018 (CSEW) (held by the UK Data Service under SN 8464). It contains data for all 34,715 cases from the CSEW 2017-2018 (adult non-victim form dataset) for a selection of variables.

The data contains 114 variables covering the following topics:

• demographic details
• perceptions of crime
• experience of crime
• antisocial behaviour
• attitudes towards the Criminal Justice System

Most variables are individual variables, and require individual based analysis. Household-level variables include the number of adults (nadults) and children (nchil2). There is a mix of discrete and continuous variables. A full list of variable names, labels and frequency distributions in the teaching dataset are provided in the user guide. The documentation for the main CSEW 2017-2018 (SN 8464) includes a copy of the questionnaire.

The crime rate in London was 105.8 crime offences per thousand people for the 2023/24 reporting year, compared with 100.9 in the previous year. Between 2015/16 and 2019/20 the crime rate in the UK capital increased in every reporting year, with the sudden drop seen in 2019/20 due to the COVID-19 pandemic causing a sharp reduction in certain types of crime such as robbery and theft. Police record over 938,00 crimes in 2023/24 The number of crimes reported by the police in London was 938,020 in 2023/24, compared with 887,870 in the previous reporting year. Although there was a slight dip in overall recorded crime in the aftermath of the pandemic, this was not the case for violent crimes which have risen consistently. One positive is that the number of homicide offences in 2023/24 has remained beneath the 159 reported in 2017/18. Additionally, the Metropolitan Police force area has a lower crime rate than many of the UK's other major police forces, such as West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, and Merseyside. Police recruitment drive ends era of cuts   The rise in crime in London happened alongside a decline in both personnel and funding for the London Metropolitan Police. Compared with 2010 for example, there were around 3,000 fewer police officers in 2018, while annual funding was reduced to around 3.3 billion pounds between 2013/14 and 2018/19, compared with 3.62 billion in 2012/13. These cuts were due to the policy of austerity that was implemented by the UK government during that time period, but this has recently been replaced by pledges to increase spending and to recruit more police. In 2023/24, the budget for the Metropolitan Police was 4.53 billion pounds, while the number of officers in 2023 increased to around 34,900.

There were 930,398 crimes recorded by the Metropolitan Police in London in 2023/24, the most of any police force area in England and Wales. Greater Manchester Police reported 342,652 crimes, while West Midlands police recorded 328,180, making these police forces the second and third-highest in terms of crime recorded.

In the 2022/23 reporting year Greater Manchester Police reported 11,827 sexual crime offences, compared with 11,613 in the previous year. During this time period, the number of sexual crimes reported was highest in the most recent year.

In the 223/24 reporting year, the Cleveland police force reported a homicide rate of 22.4 homicides per million people, the highest among the provided police force areas in England in that year

This statistic shows the ten cities with the highest car crime rate in Great Britain in 2011 and 2012. Manchester clearly has the highest car crime rate in the country, however, cities like Manchester, London and Birmingham are particularly big. Bradford is not a particularly big city, but it has a very high car crime rate. The national average was only 121 cars stolen per 10 thousand registered which is stark contrast with the ten cities in the list.

London's Metropolitan Police is by far the largest police force in the United Kingdom with 34,315 officers in 2024. At 16,356 officers, the Scottish police force has the second-largest force in terms of officer numbers, followed by Greater Manchester police force, which had 8,141 officers that year. Although the Metropolitan Police are responsible for policing most of Greater London, the City of London Police force covers the historic center of London, which is around one square mile in size, and numbered 995 officers in 2024. Crime in the UK In 2023/24 there were approximately 6.66 million crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales, compared with 6.74 million in 2022/23, which was the highest number of crimes recorded in a reporting year since 2002/03. Although crime declined from the mid-2000s to the mid-2010s, there has been a noticeable increase in crimes from 2014/15 onwards. In terms of the crime rate, England and Wales had the highest in the United Kingdom, at 89.7 offences per one thousand people, compared with 55 in Scotland, and 52.3 in Northern Ireland. Cuts to policing reversed in recent years Between 2010 and 2017, the number of police officers in the UK fell from 172,000 officers to just 150,000. During this same period, the London Metropolitan Police saw officer numbers decline by around 2,000 officers. The fall in police personnel was a result of UK-wide funding cuts, during this time period, with police expenditure falling from 19.3 billion in 2009/10 to 16.35 billion by 2013/14. This policy has since been reversed, with the last UK government recruiting officers and generally spending more on the police service. As of 2024, there were 170,500 police officers in the UK, and government expenditure on the police service was 27.3 billion British pounds.

The Metropolitan Police in London recorded 520 transgender hate crime incidents in the 2023/24 reporting year, which was the most of any police force in England and Wales. Greater Manchester Police reported 314 transgender hate crime incidents, with West Yorkshire Police reporting 273.

In 2023/24 there were 27,454 hate crimes reported by the Metropolitan Police in London, the most of any police force in England and Wales. The police force areas with the second, and third-highest number of hate crimes were Greater Manchester Police, and West Midlands Police, at 10,081 and 9,329 crimes respectively.