England has worst crime rate in world

Telegraph, U.K. ^ | 01/12/2002 | David Bamber

[ElkGroveDan]

England and Wales have the highest crime rate among the world's leading economies, according to a new report by the United Nations.

The survey, which is likely to prove embarrassing to David Blunkett, the Home Secretary. shows that people are more likely to be mugged, burgled, robbed or assaulted here than in America, Germany, Russia, South Africa or any other of the world's 20 largest nations. Only the Dominican Republic, New Zealand and Finland have higher crime rates than England and Wales.

According to the comparison of international crime statistics produced by the UN's Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, England and Wales had 9,766 crimes for every 100,000 people in the year 2000. America had 8,517, South Africa 7,997, Germany 7,621 and Russia 2,022.

During the period 1998-2000, Britain went from fifth to fourth worst in the world league table. An analysis of total recorded crime figures before 1998 also suggests that England and Wales have moved sharply up the league table since Labour came to power in 1997. Crimes fell from 5.5 million in 1993 to 4.5 million in 1997. By 1999, total crimes had risen again to 5.3 million.

Last night Oliver Letwin, the shadow home secretary, said: "This does rather blow a hole in David Blunkett's claim that New Labour has crime under control. It is a damning picture."

The UN reports also shows that England and Wales are the second-worst places in the world for assaults, with 851 people assaulted per 100,000, and seventh for burglaries and car theft, with 1,579 burglaries per 100,000 population.

Criminologists believe that a note of caution needs to be introduced into analysis of the data, because of the different ways in which UN member countries record crimes.

A Home Office spokesman said that officials had not yet seen the report and so could not comment.

[thinktwice]

we need a war on stupid people

Better yet, America could go back to the original U.S. Constitution and ... not permit stupid people to vote.

The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments are the main items needing change.

[bert]

TheThe article is very curious. It did not say Britan, it said England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland are apparently omitted.

one wonders why Scotland was omitted? Could it be to reduce the statistic /100,000?

[Jakarta ex-pat]

And as for your other comments, I don't believe it's a matter of color per se, but of the incompatability of certain cultures to rub along together. If a typical black mugger in London had been brought up by a typical English middle-class family he would almost certainly not be a mugger.

Thanks for the response.

I'll just concentrate on these statements.

First, I didn't state that the perp was black (though he was).

Secondly you mention if he had been brought up "a typical English middle class family"

Two things spring to mind here.

First, I was brought up a very much British working class family, but I believe I have been taught right right from wrong (that doesnt' mean I am or have ever been goody two-shoes).

Secondly, If he were brought up "by a typical English middle-class family", then he would be a Brit, right?

The guy who "mugged" my nephew is as much a "Brit" as my wife.

[ricpic]

Ang em in the public square I sez guvner. Blimey, ang em from the ighest yardahm while yer at it. That'll smarten up the lower orders guvner. Teach em respect it will. Bloody divels.

[Age of Reason]

At the end of the nineteenth century, some English politicians desiring a tightening of England's gun laws (which were then VERY lax) researched how many people were murdered in England by hand guns.

They found that something like three people in all of Britain had been murdered by hand guns in the preceeding year.

But it's not gun laws or their lack that has much to do with England's crime--it's the demoralization of society, which is abetted by the introduction of "diversity."

You soon end up with a population whose only common denominator of social prestige is not honor--but raw money.

And any means that gains someone more, becomes excusable.

Like we've become.

[PatrioticAmerican]

They also have the worst "food".

[Hal.009]

The "tinkering" you mention consists of downgrading crimes (calling a burgulary simple vandalism, and mugging and rape reduced to minor assault), the english police also classifying multiple crimes as a "single crime" (if four apartments broken into they make one report of the incident, four people robbed... one report) and they have gotten to the point where they now "refuse to take a crime report on assaults and muggings".

The mayor of Atlanta Georgia perfected this last tatic. We had a rental truck broken into in front of our hotel in Atlanta. We needed a police report for the insurance and two different police officers refused to write a report. We were told to "phone it in".

After three calls and an hour and a half on hold the lady reluctantly took the report. I found out later that the new practice of "no reports" lowered the citys crime rate since no report, no crime.

[Age of Reason]

Doesn't Japan have low crime despite tough gun laws?

How diverse is Japan?

(Strangely, I have heard that the crime rate among Japanese Americans is about the same as for Japanese living in Japan.)

Could criminal behavior be genetic?

[Jakarta ex-pat]

At minimum, add Korea.

[Cicero]

All it takes is one high-profile case where a homeowner was given a life sentence for protecting himself against two young thugs who broke into his home after a string of robberies, and burglars everywhere will think they are teflon-coated.

Couple that with the huge influx of immigrants--West Indians, Africans, Albanians, Muslims of all kinds, all encouraged to think that people are discriminating against them and treating them badly--and you have a real situation. They know that the law will be harder on their victims than on the perps, so what do they have to lose?

[SamAdams76]

Many works of fiction, Dickens in particular, are set against a historical backdrop based on fact. Otherwise, the novels would have little relevance to most people (unless it is science fiction). By reading these novels, you can almost place yourself in a particular place at a particular time. That is what makes much fiction so compelling. I happen to be reading a WW2 novel called "From Here To Eternity" and I feel as though I am on a Hawaiian Army Base in the summer before Pearl Harbor.

So while the characters in a novel are usually fictitious, the setting that they exist in is often clearly rooted in fact.

[archy]

There are posters everywhere warning the population against verbally or physically assaulting minorities, immigrants, women, gays and other protected groups. This is now considered a serious crime.

Yep. It's now reached the point that if you do have to defend yourself, you might as well kill your attacker and leave the scene, hopefully leaving noone to identify you. What are they going to do, call you a criminal?

-archy-/-

[shaggy eel]

,,, yep, the stats will stand up OK. New Zealand's total population amounts to only 3,9 million people. On a per capita basis we probably have one of the highest number of personal computers per head of population, the highest VD rates, the most sheep in the world, the most unused sealed roads etc. etc.

The crime rate may be higher on paper but I can't imagine the crime families in control of your unions, casinos, car dealerships and concrete businesses moving here to capitalise on this extraordinary advantage.

[shaggy eel]

I don't know much about New Zealand, but I'm surprised that they have so much crime. I pictured it as just a really green country with lots of sheep--shows what I know.

,,, I know a bit about New Zealand. The sheep are just fine and the grass is quite green right now as it's been the coldest spring for almost thirty years. As for the Police, they're all federal as New Zealand doesn't have a State structure like the US or Australia. The Police are one of the biggest media manipulators in the country. Their service is at the sharp end of the political spectrum. Look how the crime rate has dropped over recent years in New York. That became the focus of attention from other States, the media and, indeed, the world. Funding and resouces are at the heart of it all and a mix of stats and media manipulation are the key tools in playing the game. In New Zealand's July 2002 elections law and order was a key issue.

[John Lenin]

Everything is a crime in England, if you call a gay guy a fag, it's now a crime. Pathetic, the liberals have all but destroyed England.

[shaggy eel]

I spent all of '94 there - mostly in Wellington - and I did not perceive a large crime problem. I could walk Wellington's worst streets at night without any fear.

But perhaps a lot can change in 8 years.

,,, nothing has changed in Wellington's streets except the cuisine gets better by the year. Any style of food you care to name is available in Courtenay Place and Cuba Street. Manners Mall is a place where kids congregate, more often than not, but the level of safety you recall is still intact anywhere in Central Wellington. It's a vibrant, compact and generally happy city.

[David Hunter]

The real problem is an attitude of too many that any self defense is an assault on the criminal and should be prosecuted.

You're absolutely right, that is exactly the attitude of the Police and "Justice System" in Britain. They think that all citizens are just potential criminals waiting for an opportunity to break the law.

I actually had a long argument with a British liberal a month or so ago about whether or not women in US states with CCW were empowered to protect themselves from rapists if they exercised their right to carry a concealed sidearm. The idiot I was arguing with didn't think having a gun would make a difference to a woman who was attacked by a rapist and he disliked the idea of shooting a potential rapist, even just to inflict a minor wound as a deterrent. He thought it would be immoral to use armed force against someone to prevent a rape, mugging or burglary. This bloke is a science lecturer at a major British University. Unfortunately, we are dealing with extreme stupidity and/or brainwashing here.

[3catsanadog]

So if a person of Hispanic heritage commits a crime, he's white; otherwise, he gets preferential treatment as a member of a so-called minority. I say "so-called" because Hispanic is not a race of people. I think the only true races are caucasian, negroid and oriental and maybe another.