Police fear recession could boost domestic violence

By Michael Holden

LONDON (Reuters) - Police chiefs fear the recession could cause a spike in cases of domestic violence but the economic downturn has not yet caused the surge in crime many expected, a senior officer told Reuters.

U.S. police have already reported a sharp increase in offences but the first British assessment of the economic slump shows concern about crimewaves has not yet become reality, the head of the UK National Policing Improvement Agency said.

"At the moment in the UK, the (crime) patterns are reasonably stable -- in fact I'd say they are surprisingly unexciting," said Peter Neyroud, whose organisation is responsible for national policing research.

A survey by the Washington-based Police Executive Research Forum found that many U.S. police agencies had recorded a rise in robberies, burglaries and thefts from vehicles, and forecast that it would get worse.

The most recent British crime figures appeared to show a similar situation with a 4 percent rise in domestic burglaries, bucking the trend of the last decade when the number of break-ins more than halved.

Neyroud, who helped PERF with their study, said it was a "very, very challenging" time for the chief officers of the 43 forces in England and Wales as they try to stave off possible surges in offences and balance their books.

But he said, so far at least, the rises in crime in Britain had been far less dramatic than across the Atlantic.

"Forces are concerned that ... there is a risk that burglary and volume crime will rise. We are not seeing yet those patterns coming through at a substantial level anywhere in the country," said the former Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police.