Crime and the value of stolen goods
This report uses the Crime Survey for England and Wales to investigate the estimated value of stolen goods and its relationship to crime trends.
Documents
Details
The analysis shows that the total value of items stolen from personal and household crimes has fallen by 74% between 1995 and year ending March 2014. This means losses from thefts have reduced by more than numbers of thefts. Moreover, this reduction far outweighs the mid-2000s increase in the value of losses from plastic card fraud.
The results also suggest that changes to the value of individual types of good (e.g. audio equipment) can have an important effect on trends in the theft of these goods. Overall, however, the change in the value of goods is probably a minor driver of crime.