Challenge
Kantar has held the contract for The Crime Survey for England and Wales – considered the most authoritative measure of national crime trends for these countries – since 2001. It is regarded globally as one of the highest quality victimisation surveys, and has provided a blueprint for others.
Approach
The programme of research, which includes 35,000 face-to-face interviews with adults every year and a further 3,000 interviews with 10-15-year olds, is a continuous survey conducted for the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS). In addition to maintaining the response rate at 70-75% since 2001, Kantar has worked with ONS and the UK Home Office to continuously improve the survey. Changes have included extending the reach to cover 10-15-year olds; developing new measures to incorporate fraud and cyber-crime; and innovating in sample design to reduce survey error.
Insight
The survey provides victimisation data which helps the Home Office to produce crime reduction initiatives. It also provides the most reliable source of data about sexual victimisation in England and Wales.
Impact
The study has been used as a model to contribute to the measurement of crime rates by governments across the globe, including by our Kantar teams in India and Korea.