Multiculturalism and criminality

The Office of National Statistics have reported that in 2013 some 8.6 million crime incidents took place in England and Wales. With the United Kingdom being home to over 50 different nationalities, it is inevitable that a proportion of crime is committed by foreign nationals. The chart  below aims to illustrate the distribution of foreign prisoners held in England and Wales according to nationality. The selected nationalities are comparable in terms of foreign presence in England and Wales (fig. 1)

Focusing on Italian nationals living in the UK, 60 were convicted of criminal offences. The histogram below aims to illustrate the crimes for which they were sent to British jails. The most prominent crimes being violence against the person, drug offences  and sexual offences ( fig. 2)

Looking at the variations in the total number of convicted Italians according to crime type for the years 2011, 2012, 2013, the following trends emerge. The two most prominent crimes - violence against the person and drug offences - appear to have decreased over time (fig 3).

The graph below outlines a comparison between the number of Italians convicted for each crime type against other European nationals present in the UK (fig 4).