Is violent crime on the rise – or do the latest figures mask a different story? | Simon Jenkins

The unbelievable ONS statistics scream of an alarming crime surge, but they only reflect reporting activity. These misleading figures should be banned

The Home Office should ban the Office for National Statistics from issuing “police-recorded crime figures”, the latest batch of which were published yesterday. These statistics are part of a concerted campaign by police forces in England and Wales to resist cuts, boost budgets and bias workloads. Headlines indicate knife crime “highest for six y...