29 April 2005
Serious violent crime has fallen significantly over the past five years, according to a study by Cardiff University researchers.
Analysing figures from 32 accident and emergency departments across England and Wales, Cardiff's violence research group noted a 13% fall in serious violence in England and a 20% fall in Wales.
Its April 25 report estimated that 25,700 fewer people attended major A&E departments following a violence-related injury in England in 2004 compared with 2000.
The researchers found that closed-circuit television systems in city centres had made a significant impact, helping police officers detect problems and break up disturbances. They speculated that improved socio-economic conditions and partnerships between police and councils to reduce crime and disorder could also have helped bring violence down.
Professor Jonathan Shepherd, director of the violence research group, said: 'The prevention of violence-related injury is a major public health priority. These results represent a clear reduction in harm across all age groups and both genders.'
The study will no doubt please ministers who have been insisting that crime levels are falling in the face of seemingly contradictory figures. Latest results from the British Crime Survey show that violent crime fell by 9% during 2004, but police-recorded figures showed a 10% increase in violent crime between October and December last year.
Shepherd said his findings were more in line with BCS trends and suggested that police-recorded statistics were not a reliable measure of violence. 'This study shows that increased police detection, for example by CCTV in city centres, is often associated with decreases in harm,' he said.
'Thus, far from representing a cause of concern, increases in violence recorded by the police often signal decreases in serious violence. Overall, this study validates the BCS as a reliable measure, and suggests that police records should be interpreted more as a measure of police activity.'
Home Secretary Charles Clarke said last week that reducing violent crime was a priority for the Labour Party. He promised to reduce violent crime by a further 15% by giving police and local communities powers to tackle the drug and alcohol abuse that fuels violence.
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