Coalition's crime worries ease, but concerns remain
David Blackburn 12:09pm
The British Crime Survey is published today and the Home Office had prepared for the
worst. For months now, figures close to Theresa May have been expressing their fear that the combination of Ken Clarke’s liberal prisons policy and economic hardship would cause a rise in
crime for which the Home Office, graveyard for so many political careers, would be blamed.
Today’s figures will have eased their disquiet somewhat, insulating them from Labour’s critique that police cuts are endangering society. The headline is that crime in England and Wales has remained stable over the last year, except for a 14 per cent spike in domestic burglaries according to the British Crime Survey and an alarming 35 per cent increase in domestic violence. The government is cautious, recognising that crime is always too high and reform must continue; but today’s survey is being spun as an early vindication of its nascent reform programme.
Yet there will still be concerns. The 14 per cent increase in domestic burglaries, on the hand, is more ambiguous. James Brokenshire, the crime minister, insists that introducing street level national crime maps will enable communities to hold local police forces to account, which should reduce crime. Insurers dissent from his view, arguing that local people are not reporting crimes such as drug dealing, vehicle theft and vandalism for fear of damaging their area’s reputation, which would inflate their premiums. In this context, it is notable that the police’s official figures suggest that reported crime has fallen by 100,000 instances over the past year. However, as today’s survey says, burglary is something that cannot be ignored. Official crime figures are always benighted by arguments over unreported crime. It would be absurd in the extreme if the government’s reforms are contributing to the problem.
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Edward Sutherland
July 14th, 2011 12:55pm Report this commentAs Mark Twain might have said had he been a Brit: "there are lies, then there are damned lies, and then there's the British Crime Survey".
Nicholas
July 14th, 2011 1:28pm Report this commentEdward Sutherland - agreed.
Crap in, crap out. Only the crap out has been massaged and the turds polished.
Simon
July 14th, 2011 1:40pm Report this comment"figures close to Theresa May have been expressing their fear that the combination of Ken Clarke’s liberal prisons policy and economic hardship would cause a rise in crime."
Given that Clarke's sentencing bill was only published last month, and hasn't been passed yet, it wasn't very likely to have affected the 2010 crime rates, was it?
Baron
July 14th, 2011 1:57pm Report this commentEdward Sutherland, yap, only the BBC, the complaint MSM will believe it, reassure us, pat the boys in the blue on the back.
Andy H
July 14th, 2011 2:36pm Report this commentWe need some joined up solutions to this. Most burglars are serial offenders. So why not make any person release for burglary where a GPS tracking device for a proportionate amount of time.
This should mean that re offending can be easily tracked.
If a burglar knows they are being tracked, this should be a better deterrent to stop this crime then being constantly locked up and released.
For those who wish to complain about human rights, we need to consider the supremacy of the rights of society to live in a crime free environment.
Maggie
July 14th, 2011 3:51pm Report this commentDennis McShane has been the subject of a criminal investigation into his expenses for nearly a year now. The Labour whip was withdrawn last October while the investigation is pending. This must be another example of MPs being above the law.
Dennis Churchill
July 14th, 2011 7:34pm Report this comment“... will enable communities to hold local police forces to account, which should reduce crime.”
The police can only reduce crime by first having a deterrent physical presence and second if the criminal fears the consequences of arrest.
Does anyone think senior police officers are going to have women police patrol our streets? The recent case of a woman officer, who could not pass the fitness requirements for the riot squads, shows the way the police are going in that direction. Lower the requirements seemed to be the solution in that case. I do hope rioters lower their physical fitness standard to match them.
The police will inevitably become risk averse as their make up reflects a statistically valid cross section of the community whereas the criminals almost certainly won’t, being drawn disproportionately from the Thug Community which sets a high premium on physical strength and aggression.
As for our criminal justice system this does not act as a deterent, in fact the so-called professionals, working within it, don’t seem to see this as its role, rather some rather vague ideas of rehabilitation but without any evidence to back it up.
Dennis Churchill
July 14th, 2011 7:43pm Report this commentMaggie
July 14th, 2011 3:51pm
Let’s hope they check any claims by Josef Matyjaszek in case he forgot and used his original name.
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