British Crime Survey datasets
Source: data.gov.uk (2014-03-04)

These data tables contain estimates from the British Crime Survey (BCS) broken down by a number of demographic characteristics they can be used to calculate the rates and numbers of different crime types, as well as levels of certain perception measures also covered by the BCS.  

From April 2012, responsibility for the publication of crime statistics will move from the Home Office to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

BCS Open Data tables User Guide 
INTRODUCTION 
This document contains information on the content and use of the Home Office 
British Crime Survey (BCS) Open Data tables. These tables contain BCS estimates 
related to victimisation and perceptions of crime and the Criminal Justice System 
broken down by demographic characteristics. These tables are released as part of a 
new initiative to make government data more transparent and accessible to the 
public and external researchers and this is the first release of BCS data in this format. 
 
These tables do not contain raw data from the BCS or responses to individual 
questions from individual respondents. For users wanting to access full BCS datasets, 
these are available from the UK Data Archive 
(http://www.esds.ac.uk/findingData/bcrsTitles.asp). 
 
It is recommended that prior to using these Open Data tables, users read the User 
Guide to Home Office Crime Statistics 
(http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/science-research-statistics/research-
statistics/crime-research/user-guide-crime-
statistics/?view=Standard&pubID=908794) to familiarise themselves with the 
context of the data and the scope and limitations of the BCS as a whole. 
 
From April 2012, responsibility for the publication of crime statistics will move from 
the Home Office to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) (http://www.ons.gov.uk). 
This will also coincide with a change in name from the British Crime Survey to the 
Crime Survey for England and Wales. ONS will take responsibility for producing 
future editions of these tables.  At present, there are no plans to produce a back 
series to cover earlier BCS years.  
 
TABLE FORMAT 
The main release consists of six data tables, all with an identical layout. The files 
have been split by theme, but because all have the same layout they can all be 
combined into a single table after download. 
 
Tables are laid out in rows and columns with the first row containing column 
headings. Each row consists of a single BCS estimate, while each column contains 
information about the estimate. Estimates are principally broken down by 
respondent characteristics (identified by the Sex, Age, HouseholdType, and 
Characteristic columns). However, other columns provide further information on the 
estimate, such as the time period it relates to (identified by the Period, Quarter and 
Year columns) as well as technical details about the dataset that the estimate was 
taken from (such as the LFSWeight column). Further details can be found in the 
‘Data table specification’ section below. 
 

 
 
This layout is intended to provide BCS estimates in the most transparent and 
versatile form for users and allow data to be linked with, for example, ONS 
population estimates for the calculation of numbers of crimes. Further details can be 
found in ‘How to use BCS Open Data tables’ below. 
 
All files are made available in CSV (comma separated values) format which arranges 
data in rows and columns as outlined above. This type of file can be opened in most 
data analysis programmes.  
 
In addition to the six main tables, two additional reference tables have been 
included in this release. See the section on ‘Reference data tables’ below for more 
information on these. 
 
FILE NAMING 
The six main tables are contained in files which use the following naming structure: 
 
‘[Measurement Type]-[Measurement Subcategory]-[Date].csv’ 
 
Eg. household-incidence-2010q1.csv 
 
The [Measurement Type] and [Measurement Subcategory] sections of the filename 
are used to identify the content of the data file. There are three different values for 
[Measurement Type] each containing two values for [Measurement Subcategory]. 
An outline of what these values are and a description of what is contained in the files 
can be found in Table 1. 
 
The [Date] section of the filename identifies the BCS dataset that the release was 
taken from. It follows the same convention as the Year and Quarter columns in the 
tables themselves (see ‘Data table specification’ below).

 
 
Table 1: File naming 
Measurement Type 
Measurement 
subcategory 
Description 
Example of data in file 
Household 
Incidence 
Contains incidence rates for 
household crime 
Number of incidents of burglary per 10,000 
households in the 12 months prior to interview 
Prevalence 
Contains prevalence rates for 
household crime 
Percentage of households that have been victims 
of burglary in the 12 months prior to interview 
Personal  
Incidence 
Contains incidence rates for 
personal crime 
Number of incidents of violence per 10,000 adults 
in the 12 months prior to interview 
Prevalence 
Contains prevalence rates for 
personal crime 
Percentage of adults who have been victims of 
violence in the 12 months prior to interview 
Perceptions 
CJS 
Contains perceptions of the police 
and criminal justice system 
Percentage of adults who thin that their local 
police are doing a good or excellent job 
Other 
Contains other perceptions of crime 
Percentage of adults who perceive a high level of 
anti-social behaviour in their local area 

 
 
DATA TABLE SPECIFICATION 
Data tables are laid out in rows and columns. Each row contains a single BCS 
estimate, which each column contains information about that estimate. Below is a 
description of the meaning behind the values in each column. 
 
SOURCE 
Possible values 
BCS 
This column identifies the source of the estimate. For this release, this column 
contains only one value: ‘BCS’. This field is provided to allow future releases to 
include data from different sources.  
PERIOD 
Possible values 
12 months 
This column identifies the period covered by the data used to generate the estimate. 
For this release, this column contains only one value: ’12 months’. This indicates that 
the estimate is based on 12 months of BCS interviews. This field is provided to allow 
future releases to include data from different period lengths. 
YEAR 
Possible values 
Various 
Combined with the Period and Quarter columns, this column identifies the BCS 
interview period that the estimate is based on. The combination of Year and Quarter 
identifies the last quarter of interviews that Period covers. For example, Period = ’12 
months’, Year = ‘2011’ and Quarter = ‘1’ denotes that the estimate is based on BCS 
interviews between April 2010 and March 2011 – ie. The 12 months ending in 
quarter 1 of 2011. 
QUARTER 
Possible values 
Various 
Combined with the Period and Year columns, this column identifies the BCS 
interview period that the estimate is based on. The combination of Year and Quarter 
identifies the last quarter of interviews that Period covers. For example, Period = ’12 
months’, Year = ‘2011’ and Quarter = ‘1’ denotes that the estimate is based on BCS 
interviews between April 2010 and March 2011 – ie. The 12 months ending in 
quarter 1 of 2011. 
LFSWEIGHT 
Possible values 
Various 
BCS data are weighted to gross to the national population resident in households, 
calculated from weighted totals from the Labour Force Survey (LFS). This process is 
known as ‘calibration weighting’. LFS data are periodically re-weighted, and as such 
BCS data are periodically re-weighted to reflect this. This column identifies the LFS 
weight that was used in the calibration weighting of the BCS dataset that the 
estimate was taken from. For many users, this is technical detail that they will not 
use. However, future releases may revise estimates contained in this release to 
account for changes in calibration weighting. If this is the case, then new data tables 
will be released covering the same time period, but with slightly different estimates. 
A change in this column will signify that this is due to a change in LFS weighting. 
 

 
 
MEASUREMENTVAR 
Possible values 
Various (see reference table) 
This is the name of the variable that is being measured by the estimate. It could also 
be considered a dependent variable. In this release it is a crime incidence rate, a 
crime prevalence rate or a perception of crime. Future releases may contain a wider 
range of measurements. The variable name is a shorthand way of referring to the 
measurement in question, therefore the meaning of the values in this column may 
not be immediately obvious to users. A reference table has been provided with this 
release that contains more descriptive labels for each of the variable names in this 
column. For users who have access to the main BCS dataset from the UK Data 
Archive, the names here match directly with the variable names on the main BCS 
dataset. 
GEOGRAPHY 
Possible values 
England and Wales 
This column identifies the geographical area that the estimate relates to. For this 
release, only estimates for the whole of England and Wales are included. Future 
releases may provide regional breakdowns. 
AGE 
Possible values 
16+; 16-24; 25-34; 35-44; 45-54; 55-64; 65-74; 75+ 
This column identifies the age of the respondent at the time of interview. 
Respondents are arranged into banded age groups, with the category of ‘16+’ 
covering respondents in all age groups combined. This column only contains values 
where MeasurementLevel is ‘Person’ (see reference table). 
SEX 
Possible values 
All adults; Male; Female 
The column identifies the sex of the respondent. The category of ‘All adults ’ covers 
men and women combined. This column only contains values where 
MeasurementLevel is ‘Person’ (see reference table). 
HOUSEHOLDTYPE 
Possible values 
All households; Vehicle-owning households;  
Bicycle-owning households 
This column identifies the type of household that the estimate relates to, specifically 
whether the household owns a vehicle or bicycle. Most estimates relate to ‘All 
households’. ‘Vehicle-owning households’ and ‘Bicycle-owning households’ provide 
an alternative measure for the prevalence of vehicle-related crime and bicycle theft 
respectively and as such only have a value for these measures. This column only 
contains values where MeasurementLevel is ‘Household’ (see reference table). 
CHARACTERISTICVAR 
Possible values 
Various (see reference table); Total 
This column identifies the variable that is used to provide the full breakdown of 
estimates by respondent characteristics in the Characteristic column. It could also be 
considered an independent variable. It is similar to the MeasurementVar column in 
that it contains variable names that match the variable names on the main BCS 
dataset. More descriptive labels for the variable names in this column can be found 
in the reference table for this column. The value ‘Total’ in this column identifies an 
estimate that covers all respondents, regardless of individual characteristics. 

 
 
Users should be aware that some characteristics only exist at the personal level and 
some only exist at the household level (identified in the MeasurementLevel column 
– see reference table).  
CHARACTERISTIC 
Possible values 
Various; Total 
This column identifies respondent characteristics that the estimate relates to. 
Characteristics are grouped by CharacteristicVar such that each value of 
CharacteristicVar has a number of unique values for Characteristic associated with 
it. As well as those characteristics included on the main BCS dataset within each 
CharacteristicVar, the Open Data tables also include some combined categories that 
are not included on the BCS core variables. The value ‘Total’ in this column identifies 
an estimate that covers all respondents, regardless of individual characteristics and 
is the only Characteristic for the CharacteristicVar of ‘Total’. 
ESTIMATE 
Possible values 
Various 
This column contains the estimate for MeasurementVar for respondents with the 
characteristics referred to at Geography, Age, Sex, HouseholdType and 
Characteristic from BCS interviews conducted in the period identified by Period, 
Quarter and Year. When MeasurementType is ‘Incidence rate’ it is a rate per 10,000 
adults/households, where MeasurementType is ‘Prevalence rate’ or ‘Perception’ it is 
a percentage (see reference table). 
STANDARDERROR 
Possible values 
Various 
This column contains the standard error of the value of Estimate. As the BCS is a 
sample survey, all estimates are subject to a degree of error, reflected in the size of 
the standard error. See ‘How to use BCS Open Data tables’ below for more 
information. More advanced users may also want to know that as the BCS is based 
on a complex sample design, the standard errors included in these tables are 
complex standard errors that take the sample design into account. This means that 
no further adjustments, such as design factors, need to be applied to calculations 
involving these standard errors. 
UNWEIGHTEDCOUNT 
Possible values 
Various 
Also referred to as the ‘Unweighted base’, this column shows the total number of 
respondents who contributed to the calculation of Estimate. Estimates based on a 
larger number of respondents are generally more reliable, and those based on a very 
small number of respondents should be treated with caution. For National Statistics 
publications the Home Office does not show estimates based on fewer than 50 
respondents and it is recommended that users refrain from using these estimates as 
well. They have been included here for reference and in the interests of 
completeness. 
 
 
 
 

 
 
REFERENCE DATA TABLES 
There are two reference data tables included with this release. One each for the 
columns MeasurementVar and CharacteristicVar. These provide additional 
information on the variables included in these two columns in the main data tables. 
They can be used a lookups to include this additional data in combined tables. The 
data specification for these tables is below. 
 
MEASUREMENTVAR 
Possible values 
Various 
This includes all the values in the MeasurementVar column of the main data tables. 
MEASUREMENTLABEL 
Possible values 
Various 
This column contains a text description of the measure that MeasurementVar 
relates to. 
MEASUREMENTLEVEL 
Possible values 
Person;  Household 
This column identifies the level at which the measurement applies. For personal 
crimes and perception measures, this column has a value of ‘Person’ to indicate that 
the estimate applies to people (specifically adults aged 16 and over). For household 
crimes, this column has a value of ‘Household’ to indicate that the estimate applies 
to households in England and Wales. 
MEASUREMENTTYPE 
Possible values 
Incidence rate; Prevalence rate; Perception 
This column identifies the type of measurement. ‘Incidence rate’ means that the 
measurement shows the number of crimes per 10,000 adults or per 10,000 
households (identified by the MeasurementLevel column) in the last 12 months. 
‘Prevalence rate’ means that the measurement shows the percentage of 
adults/households (identified by the MeasurementLevel column) who have been 
victims of crime in the last 12 months. ‘Perception’ means that the measurement 
shows the percentage of adults who have a particular perception about crime or the 
criminal justice system. 
 
 
CHARACTERISTICVAR 
Possible values 
Various 
This includes all the values in the CharacteristicVar column of the main data tables. 
CHARACTERISTICLABEL 
Possible values 
Various 
This column contains a text description of the measure that MeasurementVar 
relates to. 
 
 
 

 
 
HOW TO USE BCS OPEN DATA TABLES 
At the simplest level, BCS Open Data tables can be used to find BCS estimates for 
certain demographic groups. The CSV files can be imported into most data analysis 
programmes for this purpose. A full list of the measurements that are included in 
these tables can be found in the MeasurementVar reference table. A full list of 
demographic characteristics that these measurements can be analysed by using 
these tables can be found in the CharacteristicVar reference table. 
 
The data specification table above should make clear to users that to find the 
estimate they are interested in requires filtering or searching data across different 
columns to identify the population group they are interested in. For example, overall 
national estimates for all adults aged 16 and over can be found by selecting ‘16+’ 
from the Age column, ‘All’ the  Sex column, and ‘Total’ from the Characteristic 
column (for personal crime or perception estimates). At the other extreme of detail, 
users could find estimates for 16-24 year old married women by selecting the 
appropriate categories from the Age, Sex and Characteristic columns. Other levels of 
detail can be found by selecting the appropriate values in these fields (or 
HouseholdType for household crime estimates). 
 
When using these estimates, users should be aware of the fact that the BCS is a 
sample survey and produces estimates with a margin of error around them. As such, 
the Home Office recommends that users do not use estimates based on fewer than 
50 respondents (identified by the UnweightedCount column). This feature of the 
data should also be considered when comparing differences between groups. 
Standard statistical tests can be used to identify whether differences between 
demographic groups are ‘statistically significant’. That is, whether the differences 
seen in the BCS data are due to differences in the population of England and Wales 
as a whole, or whether they occurred by chance as a result of the random selection 
of respondents for the BCS sample. Users should familiarise themselves with this 
concept before using these tables.  
 
When comparing estimates, users should ensure that they are only comparing 
estimates from independent samples. Although the current set of tables only include 
data for a single time period, future releases will cover other time periods. When 
comparing data over time, users should consider the time periods that are being 
used to ensure that they are not overlapping. This can be identified by consideration 
of the Period, Year, and Quarter columns in the data tables. 
 
Some users may want to combine data in these tables with data from other sources. 
One common use of this would be to produce counts of crime and numbers of 
victims by combining the BCS Open Data tables with population data. Incidence rates 
in these tables show the number of crimes per 10,000 adults or 10,000 households. 
By multiplying the values in the BCS Open Data tables by ONS estimates of the total 
number of adults/households in England and Wales divided by 10,000, it is possible 
to calculate the total number of crimes that took place over a 12 month period. 
Similarly, prevalence rates show the percentage of adults or households who were 

 
 
victims of crime in a 12 month period. If these percentages are multiplied by the 
total number of adults/households in England and Wales, it is possible to calculate 
the number of victims of crime. Users should bear in mind that when doing this, it is 
important to use a population estimate for the same subpopulation as that used in 
the BCS Open Data tables. So, for example, an incidence rate for men aged 16-24 in 
England and Wales from the BCS Open Data tables should be multiplied by a 
population estimate for men aged 16-24 in England and Wales to calculate the 
number of crimes against men aged 16-24 in England and Wales. 
 
These tables are designed to have many uses. The Home Office would like to hear 
from any users who have developed applications for these data tables and any 
suggestions for future releases. 
 
Phil Hall 
Home Office Statistics 
29 March 2012 
 
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