Political prisoner, activist, journalist, hymn-writer, emerging thinktanker, aspiring novelist, "tribal elder", 2019 parliamentary candidate for North West Durham, Shadow Leader of the Opposition, "Speedboat", "The Cockroach", eagerly awaiting the second (or possibly third) attempt to murder me.
Thursday, 17 July 2008
Reported Crimes Down
Well, of course they are. Nobody bothers to report anything any more, because they know that nothing will be done.
I think you may have got your wires crossed on this. The crime figures published yesterday are from the British Crime Survey, not the police - it's effectively a giant poll asking people if they've been victims of crime over the last year. It's entirely separate from any count of the number of crimes reported to the police, and so it's not vulnerable to the problem of people not bothering to report crimes on the grounds that, as you suggest, they think it will be a waste of their time.
But the British Crime Survey also reports falling crime - and this isn't people going to the police. It's simply a survey which asks people if they've been a victim of crime. If crime must be going up, even when statistics show it to be going down, does that mean it's impossible for it ever to fall? How could we know it was falling if no statistics can ever be trusted?
Perhaps now that two on-duty, uniformed have been all but kicked to death merely for telling a teenager to pick up her litter, we can finally get over the fantasy that this staggeringly violent and drug-addled country, by far the worst in Western Europe, is somehow crime-free.
I think you may have got your wires crossed on this. The crime figures published yesterday are from the British Crime Survey, not the police - it's effectively a giant poll asking people if they've been victims of crime over the last year. It's entirely separate from any count of the number of crimes reported to the police, and so it's not vulnerable to the problem of people not bothering to report crimes on the grounds that, as you suggest, they think it will be a waste of their time.
ReplyDeleteBut the British Crime Survey also reports falling crime - and this isn't people going to the police. It's simply a survey which asks people if they've been a victim of crime.
ReplyDeleteIf crime must be going up, even when statistics show it to be going down, does that mean it's impossible for it ever to fall? How could we know it was falling if no statistics can ever be trusted?
Perhaps now that two on-duty, uniformed have been all but kicked to death merely for telling a teenager to pick up her litter, we can finally get over the fantasy that this staggeringly violent and drug-addled country, by far the worst in Western Europe, is somehow crime-free.
ReplyDelete