Lessons learned from the Street Crime Initiative

1
Lessons learned from the Street Crime Initiative

• Jonathan Smith, Research Development
  Statistics, Home Office
• Stephen Finer, Street Crime Action Team, Home
  Office

2
Nature of the problem in March 2002

• Sustained and accelerating increases in robbery
  in England and Wales
• Police activities having no impact on robbery
  offence levels
• Geographically concentrated in a small number of
  BCUs and local hot-spots, but generating a
  disproportionate fear factor
• Increasing involvement of young persons as victim
  and offender
• Growth in mobile phone ownership providing more
  easy targets
• Drug use and drug markets believed to be crime
  generators in many affected areas
• Criminal justice system ineffective in dealing
  with street crime offenders

3
Reversing the upward trend
4
The steep rise in robbery has been reversed
Annual Recorded Robberies in 10 Street Crime
Initiative Police Force Areas
110,000
100,000
29
90,000
Steep Rise
80,000
Number of Robberies
70,000
60,000
50,000
40,000
1998/99
1999/00
2000/01
2001/02
2002/03
2003/04
2004/05
5
The steep rise in robbery has been reversed
Annual Recorded Robberies in 10 Street Crime
Initiative Police Force Areas
110,000
100,000
Rise Reversed
29
- 17
90,000
Steep Rise
80,000
Number of Robberies
70,000
60,000
50,000
40,000
1998/99
1999/00
2000/01
2001/02
2002/03
2003/04
2004/05
6
Rate of reduction needs to be sustained
Annual Recorded Robberies in 10 Street Crime
Initiative Police Force Areas
110,000
100,000
Rise Reversed
29
- 17
90,000
Steep Rise
80,000
New Trajectory
Number of Robberies
70,000
60,000
Initial PSA Trajectory
50,000
40,000
1998/99
1999/00
2000/01
2001/02
2002/03
2003/04
2004/05
7
Geographic concentration and fear factor
8
Street crime accounts for a small proportion of
overall crime experienced
Source British Crime Survey, Home Office
9
Within police forces, robbery is concentrated in
a small number of police basic command units
10
Rising levels of robbery heightened public
concern and fear of crime
Source Sky News
Source Sky News
11
Relatively low volumes of offending create
resource priority issues for police and other
agencies
Distribution of BCUs by daily offence rate
Source Street Crime Action Team data
12
Explosion in youth street crime
13
Children excluded from school at greater risk of
involvement in street-level offending
Source Mori Youth Survey 2001
14
The summer plus evaluation

• The biggest ever programme of organised
  diversionary activities
• Around 91,000 young people participated in total
• Of these around 9,500 young people deemed to be
  most at risk of falling into criminality were
  targeted for key worker support (to keep them on
  programmes and help them re-engage in education
  at the end of the holiday period)
• Exit survey showed 71 of this at risk group were
  planning to return to education and further 6
  into training or employment
• Local crime fell by 5 across the areas covered
  by the scheme over the summer months (July to
  September)

Source DFES Research Report 392
15
The mobile phone phenomenon
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(No Transcript)
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Link between problematic drug use and street crime
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Effectiveness of the criminal justice system
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Lessons learned - closing the gaps in our
understanding nationally and locally
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Lessons learned (1)

• It is possible to reverse a sharply rising crime
  trend
• Partnership is critical to success at both
  national and local level
• Well-targeted diversionary programmes can make an
  impact on behaviour of young people
• The robbery hotspots remain the robbery hotspots
  although some of these have dispersed - there has
  been little or no displacement

21
Lessons learned (2)

• Access to reliable local data, and matching the
  right responses to the problem, is critical to
  success
• Intervention with drug users can have a
  preventive impact on crime if the analysis of the
  problem is right
• Improvements in the efficiency of the criminal
  justice system are possible local co-operation
  and understanding of competing pressures is
  essential
• prevention is better than rehabilitation, but
  both are necessary for sustained crime reduction
  and have a long lead in time

22
Conclusions

• Todays programme builds on these key themes
• Offender profiling and targeting
• Partnership
• Resettlement and rehabilitation of offenders
• Young people and street crime
• Use of analysis, data and its exchange