Perils of the Subjective Approach: A Critical Analysis of the UK National Crime Recording Standards

Kent McFadzien, John M Phillips, Perils of the Subjective Approach: A Critical Analysis of the UK National Crime Recording Standards, Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, Volume 15, Issue 1, March 2021, Pages 556–569, https://doi.org/10.1093/police/paz023

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Abstract

It is now more than 15 years since the Home Office introduced a standardized methodology for crime recording in the UK. The April 2018 edition of the Home Office Crime Recording Standards sets out six purposes, which continue to inform the broad aim of the standards. These purposes include: the provision of a high-quality service to crime victims; promoting effective and ethical investigations; accurately informing the public about the risk of crime; and supporting police management and national policy development. These relatively lofty objectives might fairly be considered the success criteria against which the standards themselves can reasonably be judged. This article turns a critical eye to the performance of the existing regime against each objective in turn. In several key areas, it suggests that the crime recording standards have actually been counter-productive in application and now threaten both police efficiency and police legitimacy.