Incidents of criminal damage recorded by the police and estimated by the British Crime Survey (BCS) are reported annually in the Home Office Statistical Bulletin ‘Crime in England and Wales’.
Current figures can be found in the following table. These are produced for England and Wales as a whole. Separate figures for England are not currently available. The BCS, which provides the best measure of trends over time, shows that there has been a 19 per cent. fall in incidents of criminal damage between 1995 and 2005-06.
Incidents of graffiti are included within the overall count of criminal damage and it is not possible to provide separate estimates from the either police recorded crime statistics or the BCS.
Number (thousand) 1995 1996 1997 Police recorded crime statistics Total criminal damage 914 951 877 BCS All vandalism 3,366 n/a 2,866 Unweighted base1 16,337 — 14,937
1998-992,3 1999-20004 2000-01 2001-02 Police recorded crime statistics Total criminal damage 880 946 960 1,064 BCS All vandalism n/a 2,861 n/a 2,603 Unweighted base1 — 19,398 — 32,787
2002-035,6 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 Police recorded crime statistics Total criminal damage 1,121 1,219 1,198 1,185 BCS All vandalism 2,535 2,465 2,564 2,731 Unweighted base1 36,450 37,891 45,069 47,729 1 Unweighted base refers to the number of households interviewed by the BCS upon which the estimates are based. 2 Change from calendar year to financial year in reporting of recorded crime. 3 The number of crimes recorded by the police in that financial year using the expanded offence coverage and revised counting rules which came into effect on 1 April 1998. 4 Figures for BCS relate to calendar year 1999. 5 Numbers of recorded crime offences will be affected by changes in reporting and recording. For further information see chapter 3 in ‘Crime in England and Wales 2002/03’. 6 Police recorded crime includes figures from the British Transport Police from 2002/03 onwards. Source: ‘Crime in England and Wales 2005/06’ Home Office Statistical Bulletin 12/06, July 2006 and associated web tables http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs06/hosb1206tab201.xls and http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs/100years.xls
Statistics are not currently collated centrally on the ethnicity of people given an ASBO. The decision to grant an ASBO as a means of protecting a community or individuals from antisocial behaviour rests with the courts, and the agencies that apply for such orders are themselves public bodies that are thus subject to the race equality duty.