:Metal detecting is a popular hobby in England and Wales, and, since 1997, over 1.3 million finds have been recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS), a scheme to encourage the voluntary recording of artifacts found by the public. The metal detector can be a useful archaeological tool when used lawfully and responsibly; however, it is also a tool that is used for illicit purposes by individuals and groups wishing to obtain artifacts from archaeological sites on which they have no permission to detect. Information on the number and nature of incidents of illicit metal detecting, however, is difficult to collate owing both to the nature of the crime and to the way it is recorded (or not) by law enforcement authorities. In this article, we examine the strengths and limitations of the available official and unofficial sources on illicit metal detecting in England and Wales and explore the potential they have to tell us about current trends in this form of heritage crime. The first unofficial source is a list of incidents reported to Historic England, which contains basic information on 276 incidents recorded between 2010 and 2017. The second source is the result of a survey of the PAS’s finds liaison officers regarding the extent to which they assisted law enforcement authorities for the years from 2015 to 2017. Both sources were then contrasted with a freedom of information request that was sent to all 49 police forces in the United Kingdom. Although there are some synergies between the unofficial and official sources, the lack of detail in any one dataset makes them of limited use in demonstrating trends in the macro- and micro-scales of time and place. Accordingly, many of the issues highlighted in this article could be resolved by devising a better system for police record keeping of metal detecting offences.

中文翻译：

---

检测遗产犯罪：我们对英格兰和威尔士非法金属检测的了解

：金属探测是英格兰和威尔士的一项流行爱好，自 1997 年以来，便携式古物计划 (PAS) 已记录了超过 130 万件发现，该计划旨在鼓励公众自愿记录发现的文物。合法和负责任地使用金属探测器可以成为有用的考古工具；然而，它也是一种工具，被希望从他们无权探测的考古遗址获取文物的个人和团体用于非法目的。然而，由于犯罪的性质和执法当局记录（或不记录）的方式，有关非法金属探测事件的数量和性质的信息很难核对。在本文中，我们研究了英格兰和威尔士有关非法金属检测的官方和非官方来源的优势和局限性，并探索他们必须告诉我们这种形式的遗产犯罪的当前趋势的潜力。第一个非官方来源是向历史英格兰报告的事件清单，其中包含 2010 年至 2017 年间记录的 276 起事件的基本信息。第二个来源是对 PAS 的调查联络官关于他们协助法律的程度的调查结果2015 年至 2017 年的执法当局。然后将这两个来源与发送给英国所有 49 支警察部队的信息自由请求进行了对比。尽管非官方和官方来源之间存在一些协同作用，任何一个数据集中都缺乏细节，这使得它们在展示时间和地点的宏观和微观尺度趋势方面的用途有限。因此，本文中强调的许多问题都可以通过设计一个更好的金属探测犯罪记录保存系统来解决。