Sampling frame effects on the British Crime Survey

In 1992, the British Crime Survey used the postcode address file as the sampling frame for the first time, having previously used the electoral registers (ERs). This paper addresses concerns that the change in frame may have affected the survey data, particularly measures of change over time in victimization rates. The general conclusion is that the change may have caused increases in crime rates between 1988 and 1992 to be slightly overestimated, but only by an amount which is very small compared with other sources of survey error. Information is also provided on the nature of the biased coverage of the ERs, and the population subgroups that would be under-represented by surveys involving ER samples.