Fraud and Computer Misuse Rise as Knife and Gun Crime Fall

The statisticians’ own summary is that crime against individuals and households has generally fallen over a decade “with some notable exceptions, such as fraud” — and the exceptions are where the growth is. Bank and credit account fraud alone rose 13% to 2.8 million incidents. Computer misuse is up sharply year on year yet remains 54% below its 2017 level, so the rise is a rebound rather than a record. Two figures in the release need handling with care. Recorded robbery appears to have risen 10%, but that is mainly an artefact of better recording of robbery from businesses; robbery of personal property actually fell 7%. And a reported jump in domestic abuse, to 9.6% of adults from 7.8%, comes with an explicit warning from the statisticians that changes to their own questionnaire have “likely affected the domestic abuse estimates and scale of the increase” and that it is too early to say whether it represents a new trend. Shoplifting, which has driven much retail commentary, was down 2% at 519,516 offences.