Update on BCS developments

Crime Surveys User Group - 7 December 2009

philip.hall@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

john.flatley@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

Overview

– Brief background to the BCS

– Update on extending the BCS to under 16s

– Changes in 2008/09 survey

– 2009/10-2010/11 surveys

– Other developments

– Latest on data archiving

Background to the BCS

– Face-to-face interviews with residents aged 16 and over in households in England and Wales

– First survey in 1982

– Run at roughly two year intervals until 2001, when it became a continuous survey

– Sample size now around 45,000

– Results published annually in Crime in England and Wales:

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs09/hosb1109vol1.pdf

Update on under-16s extension

– Interviewing of under-16s began in January 2009

– Experimental statistics are due to be published in June 2010

– This will include several approaches to counting crimes experienced by children

Changes in 2008/09 survey (1)

– OAC variables added to dataset

– New questions and derived variables on newspaper readership

– New questions on perceptions of change in types of crime locally and nationally

– New questions expanding on 3 strands of ASB:

– Teenagers hanging around

– Drug use or dealing

– Drunk or rowdy behaviour

– Analysis published in Supplementary Volume in November: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs09/hosb1709.pdf

Changes in 2008/09 survey (2)

– New sample design– Simple random sample in areas of high population density

– Semi-clustered in areas of medium population density

– Clustered in areas of low population density

– Change in PSU identifier variable (used to calculate CSEs)– ‘AREA’: This previously represented the primary sampling unit

(PSU), now it just reflects an interviewer’s assignment

– ‘PSUID’: This is a new variable used to identify the PSU

2009/10-2010/11 surveys

– 2008/09 BCS was last year of the youth boost

– Now have under-16s survey from 2009/10 onwards

– Questionnaire review currently underway (subject to change)

– New questions on trust in official statistics

– ID fraud questions to be replaced with module on e-crime

– Some new ASB questions looking in more detail at drug use or dealing

– Possible split-sample experiment comparing more general questions on intimate violence to current questions

Other developments

– Methodology review project

– Examine whether changes to BCS sample design in the last 10 years have affected the reliability of trend estimates

– Consider whether the BCS might under-report crimes committed against those aged 16-24 living in areas with high levels of crime and social deprivation

– Examine the implications for crime trends of reporting on data collected during a financial year compared to reporting on prevalence or incidence of crime experienced during a financial year.

– UKSA ‘Barriers to Trust’

– Review of trust in crime statistics

– Interim report due around Christmas/early next year

– Open meeting due to be held in London January 18 (provisional)

Update on data archiving (1)

– Reviews across government on the protection of data collected and held by departments

– New GSS policy has been released covering government surveys microdata which attempts to balance the risk of disclosure with the usefulness of data for researchers

Update on data archiving (2)

– Variables now deemed disclosive include – Country of birth/nationality

– Occupation/industry coding

– Urban/rural area classification

– ACORN/OAC code

– PFA

– These variables have been removed or grouped in the main EUL dataset on the UKDA

– We have created a new special license dataset containing low-level geographic information

Update on data archiving (3)

– New special license datasets that can be requested in addition to main EUL datasets

– Four special license datasets available

– Drug use

– Drinking behaviour

– IPV and sexual victimisation

– Low-level geographic data

– Only one request needs to be made per project for one or more special license datasets.

Update on data archiving (4)

– Also available through UKDA

– Questionnaire

– 2008/09 Technical Guide

– 2008/09 User Guide

– Crime in England and Wales 2008/09 was published as two volumes. Volume 2 contains information for interpreting BCS and police recorded crime data

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs09/hosb1109vol2.pdf

Update on data archiving (5)

– Previously, OCJS cross-sectional datasets have been added to the archive

– Two OCJS datasets are also being added to the archive used in the recent publication of Longitudinal Analysis of the OCJS 2003-2006:

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs09/horr19c.pdf.

Update on data archiving (6)

– Four-year panel dataset comprising 2,539 respondents who participated in all four waves of the OCJS.

– Includes derived offending, ASB and drug use variables, derived risk factor variables and original survey variables. Also five cluster variables derived as a result of latent class analysis.

– Paired transitions dataset used in the analysis of 12-month transitions between consecutive OCJS interviews.

– Contains 11,449 cases. Each case is a respondent who was interviewed at two consecutive waves of OCJS. Hence, respondents who had taken part in all waves appear three times.

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