ABSTRACT
The most important basic distinction to be made within the range of criminal acts is between offences against the person and those against property. The former will include the homicide group; assaults and woundings; sexual offences; and robbery. Property offences comprise various kinds of theft; trust offences such as fraud and embezzlement; criminal damage; and arson. Although the group properly demands examination of its environmental correlates, data difficulties are quite severe, and the discussion will focus primarily on personal and property offences. The comparative trend for heterosexual offences is less clear-cut: large cities and rural areas have the highest rates whereas medium-sized cities are lower and London lowest of all. While sexual offences occupy a higher proportion than in either of the more urbanised areas, personal violence is not so exaggerated as in Humberside. As many as one-third of property offences involve vehicles but within this group there are wide variations in spatial incidence.
