Daily News Summary
Friday, 18 July 2008
Main Stories
Economic gloom could reverse downward trend in recorded crime
Crime fell by 10 per cent in England and Wales last year, the continuation of what government describes as the longest recorded period of falling crime in living memory, but officials are concerned that the impending economic woes will see crime rise in the future, Gdn6and7, Times6 and7.
CCJS' Director, Richard Garside, provides analysis in the Times.
Despite the decline the public's perception is that nationally crime is rising. The FT reports that the new UK Statistics commission is to review the barriers to confidence in the official crime figures. It quotes CCJS' Deputy Director, Enver Solomon, saying that official figures do not necessarily capture the levels of crime experience by young males in urban areas. FT4
Knife and gun crime
Meanwhile the 21st teenager this year was stabbed to death in London. The crime figures show that more than 55 per cent of knife and gun crime is concentrated in inner city areas of London, Birmingham and Manchester. Overall for violent offences involving a knife or sharp instrument eight police force areas account for two thirds of all incidents. The Guardian concludes: `There has been highly concentrated localised increases in the number knife attacks at a time when violent crime is falling in the rest of the country.' Gdn7.
Based on British Crime Survey data which shows that 6per cent of violent offences involved knives the Mail and the Mirror calculate that this is the equivalent of 130,000 incidents and claims there is `a knife attack every four minutes', DMail8and 9, Sun4and5.
Huge rise in fraud
The official crime figures also show there has been a huge rise in card fraud. Times6
Other Stories
Policing green paper
..was published yesterday proposing that elected mayors have control over policing, directly elected members of police authorities, directly elected chairmen of Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships and the dropping of most government targets. DMail20
`Met has not learned' from Menezes death
A report by the Metropolitan police authority says that Scotland Yard `still does not know the causes of catastrophic errors made three years ago by its officers which led to the killing of an innocent man who was mistaken for a terrorist'. Gdn2
`Gas bills to hit £1,000 a year'
Gas bills are set to rise by 66 percent. DMail1
`One in four secondary pupils have tried drugs'
Statistics from the government's NHS information centre claim that by the age of 15 more than 40 per cent of children are likely to have tried drugs, DMail1.
The data also shows that `hundreds of thousands of children' regularly drink six pints of beer a week', DTel2.
Boris backs booze ban for under 21s
Boris Johnson is piloting a scheme whereby shops will be encouraged under a voluntary initiative to ban the sale of alcohol for under 21s. Sun6
Comment, analysis and letters
`Shared experience, not race, makes a role model relevant'
`Simplistic efforts to salvage young people by elevating black high-flyers skim over the true sources of disadvantage', says Lynsey Hanley. Gdn34
Fear and loathing
Guardian editorial tries to explain why `as crime falls fear seems to grow'. Gdn36
`Prison works. So why don't we admit it?'
David Green argues that the crime rate is falling because we are locking up more criminals. Times26
`Damned lies and crime figures'
Stephen Pollard says `the evidence is clear that things are worse than the official statistics suggest'.
DMail9
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These newspaper summaries are drawn up by staff at the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies. They are not intended to be comprehensive, or wholly uniform in their approach. Instead, they reflect our individual and collective perspectives on the day's coverage, including our judgements in terms of relevance to the Centre's concerns. On occasion, they also reflect the inevitable time constraints within which we work.
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