One million attacks in a year as street violence rises again

Levels of street violence rose again last year, with almost a million attacks reported to the police. Home Office figures yesterday showed the overall crime rate in England and Wales fell sharply in the last quarter of 2002.

But fresh evidence that the rising tide of violence throughout the 1990s had continued into the new century took the gloss off the statistics. A total of 950,800 violent crimes was recorded last year, compared with 794,000 in 2001. The total number of crimes in 2002 was 5,856,800, up from 5,427,500 the year before.

During the final three months of last year, large rises in cases of violence against the person (up 28 per cent from the same quarter of 2001), sexual offences (up 13 per cent) and drug offences (up 24 per cent) were recorded by police.

Unadjusted figures suggested the overall English and Welsh crime rate had risen by 4 per cent compared with the same period of 2001. The Home Office said the true picture, which it calculates as a fall of 7 per cent in total crime, had been distorted by a new method of collecting the statistics.

But even under the adjusted method, the figure for violence against the person, which ranges from common assault to serious wounding, was still up by 1 per cent. Adjusted figures for sexual offences and drug offences were not available.

Ministers will be heartened by a fall in the robbery rate of 21.2 per cent (down 23 per cent adjusted), indicating a crack-down on street crime was working. Domestic burglary declined 1.4 per cent, or 4 per cent after adjustment. Vehicle crime was down 3 per cent, or 6 per cent after adjustment.

Bob Ainsworth, a Home Office minister, said: "Government measures to reduce crime are working. Crime is continuing a downward trend and the risk of being a victim remains at its lowest level for 20 years."

Simon Hughes, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokes-man, said: "We should not shift our sights from the main target of law and order, which should be the violent offender. The Government must keep up the momentum by targeting the crimes which cause the most fear and continue to tear our communities apart."

Oliver Letwin, the shadow Home Secretary, condemned the "worrying trends" in violent crime, burglary, theft and drug offences. He added: "This confirms what we already know; that the Government is failing to get to grips with crime on our streets." A spokesperson for the crime reduction charity Nacro said: "We should not be overly optimistic. It is a nonsense that over a prolonged period of falling crime rates, we are sending people to prison in greater numbers than ever."

After the National Crime Recording Standard was adopted last year, ministers warned it would increase recorded crime figures by 15 to 20 per cent. Under the new system of collecting the statistics, police are obliged to note all alleg-ations made to them, rather than using their discretion over whether to record them.

In a separate analysis, the British Crime Survey found more people were becoming more concerned at antisocial behaviour. Their worries included drug-dealing, loitering teenagers, vandalism and graffiti, noisy neighbours, public drunkenness and litter. It also found 26.4 per cent of people had been a victim of crime in the previous year.