Have you been a victim of crime in the last year or two or have you witnessed a crime?

[EvangelicalAboutButteredToast]

I was just thinking if a current thread that talked about crime data suggesting crime is down and I was highly skeptics of that. If you are based in the U.K. have you been a victim of crime or witnessed a crime in the last two years?

I’ve witnessed quite a lot of shop lifting. Fairly blatant with adults getting kids to put stuff in their pockets on one of the occasions. Personally I’ve had my phone taken and when I tried to get it back I was pushed around and threatened. Can’t think of anything else, but my perception of the possibility of crime happening to me or about my person had heightened. I’m much more vigilant and most likely paranoid. Keep my bag very close to me with the zip into my body for example.

No and no

I have not been the victim of crime. But there is a lot of crime in my area and I mitigate the risk by not going out alone at night, avoiding the local city centre at most times, avoiding certain public transport routes and shopping elsewhere.
So crime has impacted on me by limiting my options.

I did not have to do this twenty years ago.

I’m sorry that happened to you. But the fact that it did, and your hyperviligence, doesn’t mean crime overall has increased. And people answering the thread with self-selecting anecdata aren’t going to be right either.

I amin a small rural area. I had my car vandalised with a swastika in the summer. I’m Jewish so it was a bit shit, but they did the whole street so doubt it was specifically targeted. The police were very on it. Surprisingly so tbh. But there is thankfully not a lot of crime in our area. It makes the local papers when a drunk person accidentally drops a bottle of wine at the off licence. I am very grateful for our quiet little village!

I got flashed at when I was in the park with my baby. Full exposure! I was really shocked, and felt livid that I was obviously chosen as a target because I was in the vulnerable position of being a lone woman in charge of an infant so was less likely to retaliate in any way. I yelled that he was a sad old fucker and called the police, but they didn’t take it anywhere. I felt it was important to report it and give a detailed description because sex offenders that go on to commit more serious crimes against women often start off flashing their genitals in public to see what they can get away with.

I have never been a victim of crime.

I don’t think I have witnessed any crimes in the last two years other than driving offences such as speeding and driving through red lights. In fact in over 60 years I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed any crimes other than driving offences and low-level drug-related ones (such as students smoking dope).

I’ve had my handbag snatched on the street, and I’ve had a bicycle stolen. The police have actively effectively decriminalised both: bicycle theft is no longer investigated if said bicycle was left unattended for more than two hours; when I reported my stolen bag the police said they’d only investigate it if I was physically injured or if it was in the course of a hate crime. I’ve witnessed shoplifting countless times - and not desperate people stealing food, but groups just emptying shelves and rails into bags and legging it.

That the police no longer have the resources or appetite to investigate this sort of crime, which is often organised theft by professional gangs, is a massive issue. If the public have no faith in the police, and offenders know they aren’t going to be pursued, it’s building up to enormous problems.

No and no.

We live in a fairly rural town though where the only regular crimes seem to be people not picking up dog poo and cats leaving dead birds in gardens.

Witnessed.

I’m in court in February.

No and no. London based.

No and no. The area I live in is typically quite safe and has always been this way.

It’s not about being ‘right’. It’s about hearing from the mumsnet community. An anecdotal cross section of experiences. I’m not trying to collect accurate data.

Ive heard the same and im surprised the police weren’t interested.

It’s not a cross-section. It’s people who see a thread about crime and think THAT’S ME. It will just confirm your bias. And you’re already feeling unsafe.

Yes and yes. I rang the police whilst I was being attacked! Bur as there was no cctv and my word against the attackers ( who obviously denied it ) the police said nothing could be done. I've lost faith in them because of that

Not a victim but saw someone in Poundland pickup X amount of bars of chocolate n straight out the door .
Daresay an hourly occurrence.

I was pleased they recently cracked the organised phone theft that had been plaguing areas of London. I wonder if we think they aren’t interested when in fact they are doing a large scale operation to try and get the main people and disrupt it on a larger scale. Locally the bike thefts are drug users. They are known to the police but nothing seems to happen even when there’s cctv footage.

No and no

I think it depends where you live. The annual crime rate in my post code area is 61.8 crimes per 1000 people, 174% of the national rate. Violent crime is 43.7% of the total. So I think I am correct in my assumptions.

My nan had her handbag robbed from her at knifepoint earlier this year. And last year I was in a car crash where I was hit at high speed by a speeding driver who was high on drugs

The price of chocolate is mad! I saw something from our local police force where the shop lifters had only gone after chocolate and had a haul of hundreds of bars! My local supermarket has now put alarmed mesh over every bottle of alcohol. Will it be chocolate next?

No. Have had the police come and do a welfare check and it turned out to be a hoax call

Fair; in your case the reality and the data are in agreement.

No, not seen a crime or been a victim in the last 2 years.
Men in our area however seem to be being arrested more for pedophilia thanks to the internet with more frequency than would have happened 10 years ago. I suspect the figures show this as a rising crime too. In general male behaviour is getting worse.

Violent crime is definitely going down here.

No and no. I live in Peterborough.