Assault and Hate Crimes

There are large numbers of ‘ordinary’ crimes – crimes that the majority of citizens say are of the most frequent concern to them, and that take up the biggest single share of most police officers’ time. On account of their sheer number they are broadly termed volume crime by the police, who have defined the category as including offences of street robbery, burglary (dwelling and non-dwelling), theft (including shoplifting), theft of and from vehicles, criminal damage, and drug offences linked with acquisitive crime (Association of Chief Police Officers of England, Wales and Northern Ireland, 2001, p. 9). Those who have committed only these kinds of offences – which survey evidence suggests at one time or another includes a large segment of the population – are very unlikely ever to encounter a forensic psychologist. The group of people with whom our profession works may well have committed these offences at some stage, but by and large they will also have committed others of a graver nature, usually involving personal or sexual violence, or some other type of significant harm.