A combination of legal changes and decreases in many common types of crime, together with closures of custody suites due to budget cuts, mean police are making about 760,000 fewer arrests per year now, compared to a decade ago. The number of children arrested has decreased fastest, potentially driven by recognition of the negative consequences of criminalising young people. larger image | annotated R code to produce this chart

Online crime (including hacking, phishing and virus attacks) is now experienced by more businesses than any other type across sectors as varied as manufacturing and communications. But in the sectors most-likely to experience a crime (retail, accomodation and entertainment), traditional offences such as theft are still more likely. The data come from the government’s Commercial Victimisation Survey, which each year asks about crime against selected business types. larger image | annotated R code to produce this chart

Every month, the Crime Survey for England and Wales asks a representative sample of adults about their perceptions of the criminal justice system. Across age, education, ethnic and employment groups, most people believe the system as a whole is fair, but only about half say it is effective.

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Data source: Crime Survey for England and Wales, 2019

Self-reported drug use has fallen for most of the past 20 years according to the Crime Survey for England and Wales, but in the past seven years the use of cannabis, cocaine and ecstasy has increased substantially, particularly among people aged 16–24. However, drug use is still lower now than it was at the turn of the millenium, with about 10% of adults saying they’ve used an illegal drug in the past year.

A combination of government-led changes to pay mean a police constable who has just completed initial training in England and Wales is paid about £6,700 less now than they would have been a decade ago, once inflation is taken into account. These figures exclude overtime and special allowances, but those are unlikely to have made up for decreasing basic pay. larger image | annotated R code to produce this chart