Extending survey measures to children: Experience from the British Crime Survey

10 May 2011, 5.00pm, at the Royal Statistical Society (Tea from 4.30pm)

The British Crime Survey is a sample survey of the population resident in households in England and Wales. It has been running for 30 years but until recently has been restricted to adults. Since January 2009 its coverage has been significantly extended to include children aged 10-15 years.

Development of survey measures – Katherine Grant, TNS-BMRB

Prior to extending the survey to children, TNS-BMRB carried out an extensive period of developing and testing. This included qualitative workshops with children to explore their experience and understanding of crime; cognitive testing and piloting of questions and an extended split-sample field trial. Lessons learned from this work will be shared and their implications discussed.

Estimating the levels of crime experienced by children – John Flatley

Applying existing legal definitions of offences to those incidents reported by children can result in minor incidents that are normal within the context of childhood behaviour and development being categorised as criminal. Conversely, too narrow a classification could omit incidents which while not being viewed as serious by some may inflict significant harm on victims. These issues are discussed together with options for presenting statistics which have been subject to a public consultation.

Attendance is free but pre-registration is recommended. You can register by email: meetings@rss.org.uk or by phone (020) 7638 8998. For a map and directions see www.rss.org.uk/findus . For further information contact John Flatley via john.flatley@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk .