A CRITIQUE OF THE BRITISH CRIME SURVEY.
The British crime survey (BCS) has its origins in two seminal studies carried out in America in the mid-sixties (Ennis 1967; Bidermann & Reiss 1967). They asked randomly sampled households if any person in the home had been a victim of crime within the previous year, and if the matter had been reported to the police. A similar study was carried out in London in the 1970s (Sparks, Genn & Dodd 1977). In both studies, despite the many methodological problems identified by the researchers, both governments were sufficiently persuaded as to invest in national large-scale surveys.
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The BCS is one of the largest social surveys carried out in England. It is primarily a "victimisation" survey, in which respondents are asked about their experiences of crime. These are mainly property crimes of the household (burglary) and personal crime (theft from the person). The reference period for the survey is from January 1st in the calendar year preceding the BCS, up to the date of the interview. The reference period and the wording and structure of the survey have remained constant since it's introduction in 1982. The BCS has been an annual survey since 2000/2001, before that it was bi-annual from 1982.
The survey sample for the BCS is 40,000 people aged 16 years and over, having initially been 15,000 people in the same age range. The exclusion of the under 16 age group in the survey has raised concern from both the NSPCC and several other children's charities, that a great deal of crime against a vulnerable group is being missed and unreported. Genn (1982) also suggests that sexual and domestic crimes are under-reported in the BCS, however new touch screen computers for such incidents may help alleviate this concern. The survey sample for the BCS is collected from the postcode address file (PAF), which is in turn drawn up from the national census. Although the census is meant to be compulsory, the numbers of uncompleted census forms are increasing.
