What has been the most surprising development for sociologists looking at crime in England and Wales over the past 50 years? No question: it is the dramatic fall in crime levels since around 1995. This fall is best measured by the British Crime Survey (BCS) — a reliable national survey of crime victims. According to the BCS, crime reduced by some 44% between 1995 and 2005. By any measure, this is an astonishing turnaround.
And yet national surveys also suggest that, despite this fall in crime levels, the British public is more, not less, anxious about crime. In 2004–5 two-thirds of people in England and Wales actually thought that crime had increased. Strangely, as crime was falling, so fear of crime and concern about anti-social behaviour seemed to be steadily rising (Young and Mooney 2006).
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