Violent crime continues to fall

The latest crime stats are out. As you can see total crime continues to fall. Some people assert that crime has been consistently declining for 20 years or so. This is not quite correct. From 2004 to 2009 crime grew slightly. The change in trend since then is pronounced.

Now I’ve often said I don’t place much reliance on the total crime rate as it treats a minor crime such as possession of cannabis as the same as homicide. Also it can be affected by how much the Police target an area.

Hence the violent crime rate is the one I always focus on most, as victims of violent crimes are most likely to report the assaults. The graph above shows the 20 year trend,

The violent crime rate was fairly flat from 1996 to 2004, massively increased from 2004 to 2009 and since 2009 has been declining for the first time.