The annual Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW, formerly British Crime Survey) produced in October 2019 by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) asks a sample of people aged 16 and over living in households in those countries about their experiences of crime in the last 12 months. These experiences are then used to estimate national levels of crime. Until recently, the survey did not cover crimes against those aged under 16 years, but since January 2009 a sample of children aged 10–15 years have also been interviewed. The core adult sample is designed to be representative of the population of households in England and Wales and people living in those households. Some 35,000 households are now included in the survey. Due to methodological changes to the handling of repeat victimisation in the CSEW, the presentation of data is not continuous.
Despite the focus in elections and in the news about fear of rising crime, most crime has actually been falling since the mid-1990s, before stabilising in recent years. Only recently has the CSEW collected data on fraud and computer misuse (See Figure 1.)
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