Workshop 2B:
The future of crime measurement
Welcome
Helen Ross
Centre for Crime and Justice
Office for National Statistics
@ONSfocus #ONSCrimeJustice

Agenda
14:15 to 14:20 – Welcome, Helen Ross, Centre for Crime and Justice, ONS
14:20 to 14:35 – Izzy Millward– Centre for Crime and Justice, ONS
14:35 to 14:50 – Professor Michael Levi – University of Cardiff
14:50 to 15:15 – Discussant Helen Ross, Centre for Crime and Justice, ONS
@ONSfocus #ONSCrimeJustice

Future of the Children’s
Crime Survey
05 April 2022
Izzy Millward
Centre for Crime and Justice

Background of the
children's crime survey

2009
Launch of
Children's
Crime Survey
(10-15)
2010
First Experimental
Children’s
Statistics
published
2019
Child Cyber
Questions added to
Children's Survey
2020 2022
2013
Children's survey
paused due to
Covid 19
Children’s survey
returns to the
field
Children’s survey
sample reduced
from 4,000 to 3,000

Survey Structure and Content
Name
Sex
Age
Schooling: Where and what
year?
Introduction
1. Crime Screener Questions:
Theft
Criminal Damage
Physical Violence
Threats
2. Victimisation Module:
Description of incident
Injuries sustained/ Medical attention
Theft/violence during incident
Use of weapons
Location of incident
Offender details
Affects of Crime
Who did you tell?
Core Module
Use of the internet: Activities/ time.
Feelings of safety and risk
Bullying: online and offline
Speaking to strangers online
Meeting strangers in person
Sending and receiving images
Online Security
Truancy
Drinking
Cannabis use
Demographics
Self Completion

Outputs from the children’s survey
Appendix tables
(prevalence and
incidence rates)
Nature of crime
Annual Trend and
Demographics
Preferred measure
Broad measure
Offender
characteristics and
relationship
Details about the
incident
Type of victimisation
Personal and
household
characteristics

Bulletins
• Childhood vulnerability to victimisation - likelihood of
becoming a victim or engaging in negative behaviours
in households where one of more of the “The Toxic
Trio” were present
• Online bullying - prevalence and nature of online
bullying among children
• Children’s online behaviour - prevalence and nature
of online activity among children

Future Plans

Why we are re-developing the survey?
• Largely unchanged since first launched
• Improve understanding of users and needs
• Concerns and known issues with existing survey
• New opportunities for data linkage
• Wider transformation of the CSEW
In October 2021 we engaged with stakeholders through virtual events and launched a stakeholder
survey to understand how well the existing content and design of the survey meets user needs
Received 25 responses from across government, academia and the third sector​

Stakeholder feedback
Survey content
• Existing survey content is used and
valued, victimisation, bullying and gangs
most commonly used
• Some concerns highlighted with concepts
and definitions used for questions on
gangs and bullying​
• Needs for additional data raised in relation
to sexual harassment, criminal
exploitation, grooming and exposure to
harmful content online
Age range
• More than half (52%) of respondents said that the
age range of 10 to 15 years would not meet their
needs with the strongest demand for the age
range to include ages 10 to 17
Sample
• There were mixed needs for data from adults and
children from the same household
• Concerns were raised about the impact of small
sample sizes on the ability to explore
demographic breakdowns

Questionnaire development
• Exploring how we can balance user needs for data with
survey space
• Question development and cognitive testing for topics
such as gangs, drugs, harassment
• Reviewing how the survey is framed

Other strands of work
Sampling
approach
Sample
size
Mode
Age
range
Exploring the
feasibility of collecting
data on sensitive
topics from children
online
Improving how 16-
17 year olds are
included in survey
questions
Exploring options
for how we could
sample children

Crimestatistics@ons.gov.uk
Future engagement

THE FUTURE OF
CRIME
MEASUREMENT:
RECONSIDERING
ECONOMIC CRIMES
LEVI@CARDIFF.AC.UK

Measuring ‘Economic Crime’ I
 Frauds, not ‘fraud’ – re-envisioning the Action Fraud
categories
 Is future-proofing fraud & cyber categories plausible?
 Attributing nationality to cyber-crime and fraud victimisation &
justice
 What frauds on individuals are not currently measured?
 The challenge of ‘slow burn’ frauds and elapsed time awareness
 The challenges of measuring the organisation of crimes
 Not always ‘national security’ - can be local/regional security

Measuring ‘Economic Crime’ II
 Measuring fear of fraud and cyber-crimes
 Extending the Commercial Victimisation Surveys?
 Private sector surveys and market failure in measurement
 Variations on what is measured across the devolved UK
governments and the Irish Republic
 Developments in economic crime measurement outside the
British Isles
 Corruption and Money Laundering data

Classifying & analysing frauds & responses
Changes in offender motivations & networking
• Frauds against individuals – online and offline (8.9% of public aware of being fraud victims 2020-
21 – 14% of cases reported to police Action Fraud)
• Frauds against businesses – directors, staff and BEC/ransomware
• Frauds against government – new (pandemic, online) and old opportunities
Changes inTarget andThird Party ‘Defender’ conduct
• Is it repeat victimisation if the types of fraud change?
• Four key drivers of vulnerability (poor health, low capability, low resilience or the impact of a life
event) increase a consumer’s vulnerability to harm - FCA Financial Lives Survey
• But how do we/should we judge ‘vulnerability’?
• 4.1 million fraud victims in 2020 (CSEW)
• 700,000 ‘high-vulnerability’ victims in 2018/19 (Victims Commissioner, 2021)
The challenges of repeat victimisation and handling ‘vulnerability’