crime statistics

Judging by repeated news headlines it appears that Britain is in the midst of a crime pandemic. While the language and tone of many of the reports in newspapers betrays political motivations behind the stories, a more serious appraisal, which is hard to deny, is that crime is now rampant across all cross sections of society and every aspect of societal life. Criminals are getting younger while the crimes are more heinous and deplorable. It is a sad reflection on society that young people, barely of school leaving age, ‘tool’ themselves up with knives and an increasing number with guns as a custom, prepared to take the life of another human being merely over a wanton stare. The prisons are full as new and bigger ones are planned. Convicted criminals are being reclassified as ‘petty offenders’ providing justification for early release from already overcrowded prisons to make way for what may be described as a ‘conveyer belt’ of newly convicted ‘more serious’ criminals. However, the crime statistics, if you believe them, could not be further from truth. The two so-called most authoritative measures of crime in England and Wales, the British Crime Survey (BCS) and crimes reported by the Police Service, publish vastly different totals for the number of crimes committed. In the 12 months ending March 2007, the BCS estimated 11.3 million crimes against adults in England and Wales compared to 5.4 million crimes reported by the police over the same period. The main reason for this apparent discrepancy is attributed to the fact that victims of crime felt it pointless to report the great majority - nearly 6 in 10 - crimes to the police, an indictment in itself. According to both measures around three in four crimes were against property while about 20% were violent crimes against the person such as Grievous Bodily Harm (GBH). Perhaps the most striking break from every day perceptions of crime was that over the last decade crime has reportedly fallen significantly according to the BCS: all vehicle theft down 61%; domestic burglary down 59%; domestic violence down 59%; all violent crime down 41%; and overall crime down by 42%.If what the BCS is claiming is true and crime has fallen so significantly, how is it that posters ‘adorn’ most hospitals and many train and tube stations warning the public that there is a zero tolerance policy when it comes to attacks or assaults on staff? Why is it that increasing numbers of teachers are on long term sickness leave or leaving the profession early due to assaults, threats or depression. What is making the police employ metal detectors at train and tube stations and outside some schools to screen for knives and other offensive weapons? Why do some schools feel the need to have a police officer permanently on their payroll and at the end of a school day request a van full of officers outside the schools gates? How is it that most town centres on the weekend are a bedlam of binge drinking, mass public disorder, blatant vandalism, common assault, acts of indecency etc?If crime has fallen so significantly, fighting crime should have become a loss making enterprise, increasing numbers of police officers should be seeking alternative employment, prisons would be closing down and the criminal justice system should be downsizing. In actual fact the exact opposite is true. Mopping up after crime has become so profitable, with guaranteed future returns on investments, that the Government has sold off to the private sector both the management and maintenance of prisons and more such initiatives are already in the pipeline. Far from being a dying profession, an army of new Community Support Officers, have joined the ranks of the police fighting crime around the country. Prisons are not closing down for a lack of inmates but new and bigger ones are being expedited while a disused prison ship has been rapidly renovated as a stopgap measure. The criminal justice system is not running short of work but has a huge backlog of outstanding cases to process -resulting in detainees serving a term in jail before even being convicted.The staggering 11.3 million crimes in the year to March 2007, as recorded in the BCS, is clearly an underestimate. Firstly, it only records adult crimes – this means that child victims, where there appears to be the greatest increase most recently and who are amongst the most vulnerable, are literally ignored. Secondly, notwithstanding changes in counting methods, there appears to be a huge number of crimes, particularly in workplaces like hospitals, transport systems and schools which appear to be significantly underrepresented in the overall published totals. These crimes are amongst the most serious as they tend to be repeated violent crimes against an individual. Finally, overlooking many crimes due to their prevalence in society and a lack of resources to cope has become an increasingly common excuse, irrespective of whether it is related to mass public disorder offences, binge drinking weekends or the ‘legalising’ of cannabis through reclassification.Measuring the true level crime is one area of public life, amongst an increasing many, where people do not trust published statistics. When politicians insist on advocating that crime has fallen, in contrast to peoples everyday experiences, this only increases alienation and mistrust of politicians. Furthermore, whether it is crime statistics or the justification for detention without trial, the politicisation of policing has significantly undermined public trust and confidence in the police force itself. This in turn can only make fighting crime more difficult in the long run.