Attitude Towards Crime and Punishment in England and Wales, 1965-2023

Tiratelli, Matteo (2024). Attitude Towards Crime and Punishment in England and Wales, 1965-2023. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Service. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-857473

This is the latest version of this item.

Data description (abstract)

What the general public thinks about crime and punishment is a vexed question. In an effort to bring systematic data to bear on this question, I have assembled the largest compilation of aggregated survey data on attitudes to crime and punishment in England and Wales to date. The dataset contains 1,190 question-year pairs, which track popular attitudes across four areas: (i) Crime concern 1965-2023, (ii) Punitiveness 1981-2023, (iii) Support for the death penalty 1962-2023, and (iv) Prioritisation of crime/law-and-order as a social issue 1973-2023.

For example, in 2014, 58% of respondents to the British Election Studies Internet Panel thought that the level of crime was increasing. By 2019, this number had increased to 83%, and by 2023 it had fallen back to 77%. For 16-24 year olds, the numbers are 38%, 69% and 65%.

Harmonised latent trends for each area can be derived from the aggregated survey data using Stimson’s (2018) Dyad Ratio Algorithm for different demographic groups using the R script below.

Data creators:

Creator Name	Affiliation	ORCID (as URL)
Tiratelli Matteo	UCL	https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7860-5411

Sponsors:

N/A

Topic classification:

Law, crime and legal systems
Politics
Society and culture

Keywords:

FEAR OF CRIME, CRIME AND SECURITY, PUBLIC OPINION, PUBLIC OPINION POLLS, DEATH PENALTY, PRISON SENTENCES

Date published:

15 Nov 2024 10:26

Last modified:

15 Nov 2024 10:27

Coverage and Methodology

Temporal coverage:

From	To
1 January 1965	31 December 2023

Collection period:

Date from:	Date to:
1 April 2023	1 May 2024

Geographical area:

England and Wales

Country:

United Kingdom

Data collection method:

This deposit contains aggregate survey responses for four different dimensions of public opinion about crime and punishment:
- Crime concern = perceptions of the crime rate and the degree to which the public is fearful or concerned about crime
- Punitiveness = the degree to which public opinion supports being tougher on crime or supports less punitive and more rehabilitative policies
- Prioritisation of crime as a social issue = the degree to which people prioritise crime as the number one most urgent or important issue facing the country
- Support for the death penalty = support for capital punishment in any situation

1190 question-year pairs were collected from the following sources:
- British Election Study (1963-2023, 15 post-election cross-sectional studies and 9 panel studies): <https://www.britishelectionstudy.com/data/>
- British Social Attitude Survey (1983-2021): NatCen Social Research (2023) British Social Attitudes Survey. [data series]. 3rd Release. UK Data Service. SN: 200006.
- British Crime Survey / Crime Survey for England and Wales (1982-2021): Office for National Statistics (2021) Crime Survey for England and Wales. [data series]. 3rd Release. UK Data Service. SN: 200009.
- YouGov Crime Trackers (2019-2023): <https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/explore/issue/Crime-Issue>
- YouGov MII Tracker (2011-2023): <https://yougov.co.uk/topics/society/trackers/the-most-important-issues-facing-the-country>
- Ipsos Issues Tracker (1974-2023): <https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/important-issues-facing-britain>
- A. King, R. Wybrow, A. Gallup. (2001) British Political Opinion 1937-2000: The Gallup Polls. London: Portico's Publishing.
- G. Gallup (ed.) (1976) The Gallup International Public Opinion Polls: Great Britain 1937-1975. New York: Random House.
- W. Jennings, J. Kenny, A. Roescu, S. Smedley, N. Or, K. Weldon, P. Enns, K. Norek, J. Riggs (2022) UK Gallup Poll collection, 1956-1991. Ithaca, NY: Roper Center for Public Opinion Research.

In each case, I calculate the weighted average response to each question per year for different demographic subgroups. For example, in 2014, 58% of respondents to the British Election Studies Internet Panel thought that the level of crime was increasing. By 2019, this number had increased to 83%, and by 2023 it had fallen back to 77%. For 16-24 year olds, the numbers are 38%, 69% and 65%.

Observation unit:

Time unit, Group

Kind of data:

Numeric

Type of data:

UK survey data

Resource language:

English

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