How do I persuade CDRPs to treat criminal damage as a priority?
• At the national level, criminal damage accounts for 27% of all British Crime Survey (BCS) 2007/08 crime. In some areas it may well account for much more. Its high volume means that failure to tackle it will make meeting locally negotiated crime reduction targets much more difficult to meet. • Criminal damage affects a significant proportion of households. According to the BCS 2007/08, 7.3% of households in England and Wales had experienced some form of criminal damage in the previous 12 months. • Criminal damage matters to people; 28% of people think vandalism is a big, or fairly big, problem in their area; this rises to 41% in deprived areas. Nine per cent of people from urban areas say that vandalism is their biggest problem (BCS 03/04). • Criminal Damage is one of the seven strands by which we measure people’s perception of anti social behaviour. Tackling criminal damage will therefore not only help reduce the number of offences, but also people’s perception of anti social behavio
