Sample answer
The graph illustrates how crime rates in three particular crime fields altered in New Port inner city during the period from 2003 to 2012.
Overall, it is clear that the greatest change occurred in the number of burglaries, while incidents of robbery remained low but relatively steady.
At the beginning of the period, burglary was the most common crime with approximately 3400 reported cases. Thereafter, the rate of burglary rose to around 3700 in 2004, but then there was a downward trend until 2008, reaching its low at just over 1000 incidents. The following years witnessed a slight fluctuation in the number of crime cases related to burglary and there were only around 1300 incidents in the final year.
Meanwhile, the number of car theft offences underwent a slight increase before a rapid drop to approximately 2100 in 2006. But from then on, the trend was generally upward with some fluctuations. By the final year, the rate of car theft had overtaken that of burglary, becoming the major problem for Newport.
In contrast, robbery was the least common crime in Newport city centre and the quantity thereof changed little over the surveyed period. It is interesting to note that the figure of around 700 in 2003 is the same figure for 2012.
Word count: 222 words