NCJ Number
232445
Date Published
November 2010
Length
61 pages
Annotation
Based on data from the 2009-10 British Crime Survey (BCS), this bulletin presents findings from additional analyses on public perceptions of policing, people's engagement with the police, and their perceptions of the likelihood of becoming a victim of crime.
Abstract
According to the new measure used by the BCS to determine respondents' perceptions of police, the proportion of people who viewed their local police force as doing a good or excellent job increased by nine percentage points between 2003/04 and 2009/10. The largest percentage-point increase over time was for the proportion of people who agreed that overall they had confidence in the police in their area, which increased from 55 percent to 69 percent between 2004/05 and 2009/10. Fifty-four percent of respondents reported they saw police officers or Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) on foot patrol regularly (at least once a month), and 38 percent reported seeing them at least once a week; 39 percent were aware that there was a neighborhood policing team operating in their area. Fifteen percent of the respondents to the 2009/10 BCS perceived themselves as having a high risk of victimization for burglary in the next 12 months; 21 percent believed they were at high risk for a car crime; and 15 percent felt they were at high risk for a violent crime. These proportions were much higher than the proportions who actually were crime victims in the previous 12 months. Younger respondents perceived themselves to be more at risk of victimization than older respondents. Being from an ethnic group other than White, being a woman, and living in an area classified as multicultural were all independently associated with perception of a high risk for victimization, but were not associated with an increased risk of victimization when other factors were controlled. Extensive tables and figures and a 9-item bibliography