Mind Your Street Blog

According to the public policy group Reform, the “have a go hero” is an increasing rarity in Britain.

Survey evidence shows that, compared to other major European countries, UK residents are far less likely to challenge anti-social behaviour. At the same time British people are more worried about crime than their European counterparts. 43% of UK respondents put crime as one of their highest concerns, against 21% in Germany and 27% in the US.

The survey also found six out of 10 of the people questioned in the UK would be unlikely to challenge a group of 14-year-old boys vandalising a bus shelter, more than any other country surveyed.

Read the full report here: The Lawful Society.

Three quarters of the population of Europe lives in cities and towns with more than 5000 inhabitants. As homes, workplaces or centres of learning, cities have a major impact on the lives of a majority of Europe’s citizens.

Eurostat has compiled a report to measure the quality of life in a selection of major cities, using 300 criteria including demography, housing, health and crime.

So how does our capital compare for crime? Here's a list for domestic burglary per 1000 residents in European capitals (2004 figures):

The Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, believes that "the public are(sic) the best way to fight crime" and wishes to encourage them to to engage with local police to tackle crime in their area. To assist this the UK has been promised interactive crime maps for England and Wales by the end of the year.

A number of police forces already provide such maps, with the London Metropolitan police being the latest to provide such information, in addition to the West Midlands and West Yorkshire police forces

However, these generally aggregate crime statistics and provide guidance as to what can be considered an 'average' level of crime for that region. Some police forces, such as Hampshire, will provide data at the street level. Given the effect of low level crime on house prices it is clearly in the public interest to have detailed crime data at street level.

Of course, in the absence of detailed data it is possible to build up maps which show which areas are most affected by crime. Here at Mind Your Street we have built a series of maps which show the national crime ranking for local neighbourhoods. This lets residents directly compare their areas with other parts of the country. We will extend this to include detailed reported crime shortly.

Read more about the government's plans for new interactive local crime maps in every area

How does crime affect house prices where you live? It may surprise you to know that lower level crime such as vandalism and graffiti has the largest negative effect on house prices.

It could be argued that neighbourhood crime costs home-owners more than burglary. A higher level of burglary does nothing to depress prices, and the financial impact is often offset by home insurance. With a 10% reduction in criminal damage adding almost 2% to the value of a house, neighbourhood crime has a tangible cost implication.

The incidence of this type of crime, categorised by the police as criminal damage, is higher near public houses and other places of alcohol consumption. Living near such establishments tends to depress house prices.

Find out more in this paper from the London School of Economics and Political Science: Urban property crime erodes the value of your home