Partnerships Toolkit

Information on Specific Data Sources

Recorded crime figures were used by all partnerships. However, when viewed in isolation this data can often misrepresent the extent and nature of specific issues. Not all crimes are reported to the police and not all crimes reported are recorded. Therefore, police recorded data needs to be examined in conjunction with other data sources.
Calls for service (incident data) (included in 80% of audits). Each police force holds a database of service calls which details less serious crime and disorder problems not categorised under recorded crime figures; such as anti-social behaviour and under-age drinking.
A police public satisfaction survey was included by 21% of partnerships (5% and 16% with / without ethnic breakdown by respondent respectively). This can be used in part to assess the public perception and effectiveness of the police.

Local authority housing department data were not used in the majority of audits, despite the obvious benefits.
Complaints about neighbours and anti-social behaviour (27%)
Data on criminal damage or burglary costs (20%) can provide one measure of the financial costs of crime.

Offender and child abuse data (27% and 23% respectively) were the most commonly used Social Service sources. Such data facilitates a focus on specific crime types such as child abuse.

Exclusion data was included in the majority of audits (52%).
Educational attainment data (17%) and data on bullying (1%) can supplement exclusion data to place youth crime in context. Low levels of educational attainment with high school exclusions have, for instance, been linked to high levels of youth crime.

Noise complaints data from the environmental health department (39%) can help establish the extent of anti-social behaviour within the partnership.
Domestic Violence Unit data (6%) can complement police recorded crime as this crime type has been shown to be under-reported.
Counterfeit goods data (1%) produced by the trading standards department.
Employment data (56%) can partly place crime levels in a social context.
Race unit data (5%) can help measure and explain levels of race-related crime and disorder.

Probation Committee offender data was included in only 64% of audits. This data is useful for establishing the characteristics of those charged with offences.
Health Authority data on drug treatment (27%) and A+E records on assaults (21%) provides revealing information. Similarly, data produced by the Drug Action Team was included in only a minority of audits.
Police Authority data was only used by 7% of partnerships. This information is important in establishing police management and policy.

Voluntary and community groups have been active in many partnerships; however, few audits formally presented their data. This is despite the fact that 42% of voluntary and community groups surveyed have provided data to partnerships (Hester, 2000) ‘Crime and Disorder Partnerships: Voluntary and Community Sector Involvement' http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/prgpubs/brfn1000.pdf
Racial harassment and violence data (15%), homophobic crime (7%) and rape crisis centre data (2%) provide very pertinent data to help assist issues amongst potential hard to reach groups amongst others.

Fear of crime data gained from a survey (50%) is a useful measure of perception. National figures may be taken from the British Crime Survey http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/bcs1.html and may be supplemented and compared to a local survey, especially if the same questions are used.
A youth survey (21%) or commercial / business survey (17%) can ascertain information on specific groups’ perceptions, experiences and involvement in crime.
Focus groups (21%) may establish the views of members of specific groups or communities about their experiences of crime. This qualitative information can complement and help to explain numerical data.

British Crime Survey (63%) provides detailed information on national crime levels and attitudes http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/bcs1.html. and is particularly useful in benchmarking
Census data (62%) (link to most recent census on Office of National Statistics website http://www.statistics.gov.uk/ provides invaluable baseline information to enable partnerships to establish incidence (e.g. number of burglaries per 100 population) and prevalence (e.g. proportion of the population who have been burgled) and thus give meaning to raw crime data.
Local Deprivation Index data (or a local variation) was included in 47% of audits http://www.dtlr.gov.uk/regeneration/98ild/ This 1998 index gives each local authority, ward and census enumeration district a score, based on 13 indicators of deprivation. It is useful in assisting contextualise crime patterns.