Are official statistics a reliable source of information about crime in Britain?

Crime in Britain has steadily increased, with the exception of small decreases in the mid 50's and mid 90's, each year since records began in the mid 19th century. Over half of all these offences are for petty offences such as theft and handling stolen goods. In fact the majority of all offences are made up of crimes against property. The majority of the prison population of the United Kingdom consists of young males, ethnic …

…small part of the true amount of crime in this country; unfortunately there is no way of recording the amount of unrecorded crime. Victim surveys and self-report studies aim to go somewhere towards redressing the balance, but are flawed due to a low rate of response and therefore they do not account for all violations of the law. In order to get a bigger picture into the state of crime other avenues must be investigated.