Longest period of falling crime for 106 years

The crime rate in England and Wales fell by a further 5% in the past year to produce the longest sustained drop since 1898, the Home Office reported today.

Overall crime has fallen by 39% since it peaked in 1995, with the rate of car crime and burglary halving in the past nine years, according to the latest British Crime Survey.

The risk of becoming a victim of crime has fallen from 40% in 1995 to 26% in the 12 months to March 2004, marking the lowest since the annual survey began in 1981.

Figures for offences recorded by the police also published today show a 1% rise in overall crime, including a 12% increase in violent crime, a category which includes sex offences and robberies. This set of crime figures shows that violence against the person has risen by 14%, accounting for 955,000 of the 1.1m violent offences recorded by police.

But Home Office statisticians insisted that much of the rise was due to the continuing impact of changes in recording practices and increased rates of reporting by the public. The police violent crime figures were inflated by rising rates of common assaults not involving injury.

The Home Office pointed to the findings of the "more reliable" crime survey, which asks a random sample of 40,000 people about their experiences of crime. It showed that violent crime levels were relatively stable over the past year.

The police figures include 853 murders, 190 fewer than the year before the 172 victims of the GP Harold Shipman inflated the figure.

Paul Wiles, director of Home Office research and statistics, said the figures did show that while domestic violence and "acquaintance violence" had dropped by 50% since 1995, incidents of "stranger violence" and muggings had dropped by only 5% over the same period. Nearly half the "stranger violence" incidents had involved alcohol, and it is this statistic that lies behind the government campaign on binge drinking, he said.

Results from first two weekends of the police forces' summer alcohol campaign published today show that half the pubs raided in special sting operations were found to be selling alcohol to under-18s.

Professor Wiles confirmed that the government's target announced last week, for cutting crime by 15% within the next three years, was based on the crime survey figures for 2002-03. The 5% drop in this year's figures from the survey, for 2003-04, indicates that the David Blunkett, the home secretary, has already met one-third of his target only 10 days after its announcement.

But Prof Wiles said: "We've got 5% of the 15%. Does that mean it's easy because we've got 5% in the bag? No it doesn't." He insisted that Mr Blunkett and Tony Blair had not seen today's figures before the new crime target was set.

Mark Oaten, the Liberal Democrats' spokesman, last night said the idea that the home secretary had not known of the British Crime Survey figures stretched belief. "The honest and decent thing is for him to take the latest set of figures as his starting point."

Mr Blunkett said he had not received the figures until two days after the 15% target had been announced.

Prof Wiles said the sustained drop in crime since 1995 was a unique change: "It is the longest period of falling crime that anybody can remember." Claims that antisocial behaviour and fear of crime were rising were urban myths, he said.

The British Crime Survey estimates that there were 11.7m crimes against adults in the past year and 5.9m crimes recorded by the police, a 1% increase on the previous year.