The line graph below compares three types of crimes on the numbersof cases committed in England and Wales between 1970 and 2005.
It is noticeable that cases of Car theft increased significantly inthe end while that of House burgling fluctuated considerably. On the other hand,counts on cases of street robbery remained relatively stable in thefirst 25 years, and began to rise steadily since 1990.
In 1970, 0.4 million cases of Car theft occurred in the UK andWales, making it the major type of crime in the 70s, whilefigure of house burgling halved that of Car lifting. On the other hand,robbery became the least common type of crime in 1970, with 0.1million cases committed in total. Between 1970 and 1980, Cases of cartheft rose steadily to 1 million in 1980, while number of streetrobbery remained relatively stable over the period. In contrast, casesof house burgling varied greatly and eventually reached 0.6 million casesin 1980.
From 1990 onwards, Cases of street robbery increased gradually,while number of car theft committed increased by 60% andpeaked at 1.6 million in 1995, then the figure fell sharply over the decadeand returned to 1 million in 2005. Similar trend also happened tohouse burgling, as number of people committing house burglinglevelled off in 1990 and began to decline since 1995.