The line graph illustrates the percentage of three types of crime – car theft, house burglary and street robbery – in England and Wales over a 30-year period from 1970 to 2000.
Overall, car theft was consistently the most common crime throughout the period, peaking in the mid-1980s before declining. House burglary followed a similar but less dramatic trend, while street robbery remained relatively low and stable in comparison.
In 1970, car theft accounted for about 0.4%, but this figure rose sharply to 1.0% in 1980 and reached a peak of approximately 1.4% in 1985. After that, the rate declined steadily, falling to around 1.2% in 1990 and dropping further to 0.8% by 2000. Despite this decrease, car theft remained the most prevalent crime at the end of the period.
House burglary showed a gradual increase from 0.3% in 1970 to nearly 0.4% in 1980. The figure then climbed more noticeably, reaching a high of about 0.6% in 1990, before declining slightly to 0.4% by 2000. Although less common than car theft, burglary followed a broadly similar pattern.
Street robbery was the least frequent crime throughout the period. Its percentage fluctuated slightly between 0.1% and 0.15%, peaking briefly in 1975 and 1995, but overall it showed no significant long-term change.