One crime every second
Discussion
Go on then Blair, lie your way out of this one...
One crime every second
By Ben Hoyle
A CRIME is committed every second in England and Wales, according to an official estimate published yesterday.
There are more than 31 million crimes each year, which works out as 87,000 a day. Last year police recorded only a sixth of that activity, registering 5.6 million offences.
The discrepancy is because of the inclusion for the first time in an official estimate of the number of crimes committed against retailers and manufacturers. Crimes against commercial bodies, including shops, are excluded from the British Crime Survey, which is issued by the Home Office and which ministers claim is the most reliable barometer of crime levels.
The estimate published yesterday disclosed that retailers suffered 20.8 million incidents in 2002, the most recent figures available, with manufacturers bearing a further 552,000.
They included 11.5 million thefts by customers, 1.8 million assaults or threats, 507,000 vandalism attacks, 294,000 burglaries or attempted burglaries and 133,000 robberies. Adding these to the Home Office’s estimate of 12.2 million offences committed against adults and children in 2003-04 gives a grand total of 31,783,000 crimes, after a small overlap is taken into account.
A Home Office spokeswoman suggested that it was “unhelpful” to add the two figures together.
The Commercial Victimisation Survey also revealed that more than half of shopkeepers had suffered burglaries costing more than £1,000.
Interviews with 6,500 retailers and manufacturers between 2001 and 2003 showed that one retailer had lost £180,000 in one burglary.
One manufacturer reported that an incident of vandalism cost the company £7 million.
The median cost of each shop burglary was £1,350.
Earlier results from the survey, first published in 2003, found that a quarter of shopkeepers suffered assault, robbery, attempted robbery or threats at least once a year.
Of those, more than half were victimised six or more times in a year.
www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,174-1713334,00.html
>> Edited by Mon Ami Mate on Friday 29th July 08:45
One crime every second
By Ben Hoyle
A CRIME is committed every second in England and Wales, according to an official estimate published yesterday.
There are more than 31 million crimes each year, which works out as 87,000 a day. Last year police recorded only a sixth of that activity, registering 5.6 million offences.
The discrepancy is because of the inclusion for the first time in an official estimate of the number of crimes committed against retailers and manufacturers. Crimes against commercial bodies, including shops, are excluded from the British Crime Survey, which is issued by the Home Office and which ministers claim is the most reliable barometer of crime levels.
The estimate published yesterday disclosed that retailers suffered 20.8 million incidents in 2002, the most recent figures available, with manufacturers bearing a further 552,000.
They included 11.5 million thefts by customers, 1.8 million assaults or threats, 507,000 vandalism attacks, 294,000 burglaries or attempted burglaries and 133,000 robberies. Adding these to the Home Office’s estimate of 12.2 million offences committed against adults and children in 2003-04 gives a grand total of 31,783,000 crimes, after a small overlap is taken into account.
A Home Office spokeswoman suggested that it was “unhelpful” to add the two figures together.
The Commercial Victimisation Survey also revealed that more than half of shopkeepers had suffered burglaries costing more than £1,000.
Interviews with 6,500 retailers and manufacturers between 2001 and 2003 showed that one retailer had lost £180,000 in one burglary.
One manufacturer reported that an incident of vandalism cost the company £7 million.
The median cost of each shop burglary was £1,350.
Earlier results from the survey, first published in 2003, found that a quarter of shopkeepers suffered assault, robbery, attempted robbery or threats at least once a year.
Of those, more than half were victimised six or more times in a year.
www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,174-1713334,00.html
>> Edited by Mon Ami Mate on Friday 29th July 08:45
The problem is sentencing.
I flicked onto traffic cops last night. They caught one car thief after a chase. He had just been released early from prison, a repeat offender, who had just stolen another car. His sentence, 9 months (he will be out in 5 months at the most)
We cannot entirely blame judges for this, there is not the prison space available.
>> Edited by JagLover on Friday 29th July 08:58
I flicked onto traffic cops last night. They caught one car thief after a chase. He had just been released early from prison, a repeat offender, who had just stolen another car. His sentence, 9 months (he will be out in 5 months at the most)
We cannot entirely blame judges for this, there is not the prison space available.
>> Edited by JagLover on Friday 29th July 08:58
JagLover said:
The problem is sentencing.
I flicked onto traffic cops last night. They caught one car thief after a chase. He had just been released early from prison, a reapeat offender, who had just stolen another car. His sentence, 9 months (he will be out in 5 months at the most)
We cannot entirely blame judges for this, there is not the prison space available.
I saw that too! What about the lorry driver fined a whopping £25 for not having tax, operators licence and having bald tyres?? Unbelievable.
Agree on the prison space issue - if they would only stop banging people up for non-payment of fines from not having TV licences and other such rubbish then there might be more space for real criminals.
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