NCJ Number
94811
Date Published
1984
Length
10 pages
Annotation
Statistics on vandalism in Britain are reported and analyzed.
Abstract
Vandalism is a colloquial term, not an offense in British law. The law is concerned with criminal damage. In 1982, there were 400,966 offenses of criminal damage recorded by the police. Nearly half of these offenses were for damage worth no more than 20 pounds. Because of changes in the law, any estimate of long-term trends in the statistics would be unreliable. In 1982, some 10,020 people were prosecuted for indictable offenses of criminal damage, of whom 7,556 were found guilty by the magistrates and 1,691 were committed for trial at the Crown Court. Of all those prosecuted, 95 percent were male, and a preponderance of those convicted were young people. Many theories have been advanced to account for the substantial increases in recorded offenses of criminal damage over recent years. However, it is not possible to decide, simply by using the statistics, which explanation is valid or how much of the increase it accounts for. Policy on the prevention of vandalism emphasizes reducing the vulnerability of targets. Policies aimed more directly at influencing the potential vandal include the provision of better facilities for play in residential areas with a high proportion of young people, the involvement of school pupils in planning the repair of damage to schools, and changes in housing-allocation policy to reduce concentration of young people in areas with high rates of vandalism. Tables are included.