I am impressed by the Ministry of Justice Statistical Bulletin report on the August riots.
In what may be a first, the statistics are put together by combining data from the courts with information already held in government databases – specifically the National Pupil Database held by the Department for Education & the National Benefits Database held by the Department for Work & Pensions.
This is a careful exercise; he authors stress both the inaccuracies inherent in any such process, & the need to remember that these figures apply only to those brought before the courts – the ones who got away may be different.
Attention was paid to privacy issues too – memorandums of understanding between the departments were signed before work could start.
The Overview Of Recorded Crimes And Arrests Resulting From Disorder which was published at the same time by the Home Office adds police figures to the mix.
This may explain why it uses the word disorder 211 times & the word recorded 133 – in a 33 page report, much of which is occupied by statistical tables, maps & graphs.
Links
Statistical bulletin on the public disorder of 6th-9th August 2011
An Overview of Recorded Crimes and Arrests Resulting from Disorder Events in August 2011
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