The Gray Monk

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December 10, 2004

Crime: Lies, damned lies - and crime statistics?

I note with interest that our Illustrious Leader has managed to steal the Conservatives clothes - again. No sooner had the Conservatives responded to Sir John Stevens "give the householder the power to protect himself and his goods" with a plan to bring in a new law, than Mr Blair leaps in with an announcement that he is setting up a consultation and review of the existing position - so he can change the law. Ah! Politics. Don't expect anything positive from this, the consultation will embrace all the usual suspects who are responsible for this situation anyway - and once the election is out of the way, he'll quietly shelve the whole thing.

The newspapers have also jumped on this bandwagon and are peddling the usual mix of stories - quoting statistics from both the British Crime Survey and the Police Crime Statistics. These show what the public perceive as the crime rate - and what the police accept as a case to be pursued; ie: cases they have some hope of "clearing up" and thus meeting their centrally set "target" to show they are "driving down crime".

How can I say this is a fraud? Easy, my son's car was broken into on his driveway and stripped of its stereo and speakers. A mini-coach from his work (he is allowed to bring it home if he has an early run) was graffiti-ed and broken into - and stripped of a CD player, speakers, DVD player, and TV screen. Two nights later the replacement mini-coach was also attacked. Each incident was reported to the local Police Station (Metroploitan Police - Greater London area!) who gave him a "Crime Reference Number" for each incident - and then frankly told him they didn't have the resources or the time to investigate "petty" offences. In other words, these offences will not be appearing in their statisics - because they are "petty". As he points out, the damage to the two coaches runs into several thousand pounds each - just for the repainting and signwriting! His car is another matter, and his insurance excess has just shot through the roof!

To make matters worse, this is not an isolated incident or set of incidents, it is part of a long running and ongoing problem in the area he lives in. Hardly a night goes by without someone's car being attacked, graffitti-ed, or damaged in this street or the adjoining roads, yet the police refuse to deal with it. It is "petty" crime, not worth recording on their statistics, yet, if you consider this carefully, it is obvious that there is a small group of out-of-control yobs behind it. Catch them, deal with them effectively, and you have solved this problem before it becomes a major assault or a serious crime. Leave petty crimes uninvestigated and unpunished and you encourage the criminals. Besides, £200 worth of damage to Mr Blair and his cronies may be "petty cash", but to a young man or woman earning less than £1,000 a month, it is a lot of money. It isn't "petty" to them; in fact it probably represents a good 10% of the value of the vehicle itself, one he does his best to maintain in good order, taxed and insured (none of them cheap) and pays income tax (a portion of which goes to the police to "protect" his property as well!) and what, precisely, does he get for it? Nothing!

As part of the general drive to protect those of us who actually work hard for our livings and have worked damned hard to acquire what little this thieving government allow us to keep, there needs to be a serious rethink on the way our arrogant and remote police forces treat both the paying public and the crimes they report.

All crime is serious to the victim. All "petty" crime leads eventually to bigger and more serious crimes - unless the perpetrators are stopped early and given a damned good reason to rethink their attitudes and ways. This is where it should start - not in a review by the very lawyers and judges who have, by their soft touch and lack of concern for the victims of the crime, nor by the politicians, whose bleating about "miscarriages" in the justice system, both groups having caused the disastrous result of crime being virtually unpunished!

Yes, there is a gap between the perception of crime and the reality of crime, but to the victim it is all serious. One thing that is never truthful or accurate about it is the Government's own statistics - instead of the truth these reflect whatever "massage" is being applied to ensure that the appropriate Minister can stand up and tell the media that, under his government, things have never been better.

The question is - for whom?

Posted by The Gray Monk at December 10, 2004 10:08 AM

Comments

Posted by: skipjack at December 10, 2004 01:30 PM

Posted by: Ozguru at December 17, 2004 03:35 AM