Crime Reduction - Helping to Reduce Crime in Your Area

This briefing note presents an outline of vehicle theft reduction, which accounted for over a fifth of crimes measured by the British Crime Survey (BCS) throughout the 1990s, and it examines opportunities for further reduction. The figures, taken from the British Crime Survey, aim to provide a national benchmark against which local forces and crime reduction partnerships can compare local data, to be able to provide a basis on which to respond to problems in a local area.

Levels of vehicle crime have fallen by approximately 30% since they peaked in 1993, and cover three categories of theft including:

• Thefts of vehicles

• Thefts from vehicles, which includes thefts of property left inside vehicles and vehicle components

• Attempted theft of or from a vehicle

Implications for crime reduction are considered in this note, including focusing effort on groups at high risk, and those suffering prior offences. Extra attention is given to vehicle safety where cars are parked at or near the victim’s house, where most vehicle crime occurs.

Incidents involving commercial vehicles are not covered in this study, as these are outside the scope of the BCS.

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