A few days ago, the Argus newspaper cited our data showing a marked increase in recorded violent crime across Sussex. I just ran a report on our Analysis page and actually, Sussex is far from alone, or even anywhere near the top. All Police Forces apart from Northern Ireland have shown an at least 50% increase and up to nearly 4 times increase in reported violent crime between November 2013 and November 2017. The caveats of course need to be emphasised;
i) crime that was not showing up as reported or recorded may now be much more likely to be so
ii) Not all “violent” crime is actually violent crime against the person – it includes verbal abuse
I’d also like to add that whereas Police Forces have undoubtedly come under budgetary pressure in recent years, it would be a mistake to see a unicausal relationship between Police budgets going up or down and the level of crime.
