This country is sinking faster than the Titanic. Figures all ready released show that crime jumped as soon as the credit crunch took hold. Now it's not just your car keys that might persuaded some one to enter your home in the night. You might have a few odds and ends from your interest in Antiques, you might have a lovely daughter.
Frankly, I'm sick to the back teeth of this head in sand lark and would welcome the erection of security gates with a coded entry system at both ends of my street.
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You might have a few odds and ends from your interest in Antiques you might have a lovely daughter.
Blimey, I hadn't realised white slavery had started up again.
:eek:
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Meanwhile vast sums of taxpayers money is given in compensation to legally aided convicted criminals who claim to have been victims of breaches to the Human Rights Act.
So all is not lost.
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My business analyses real time and histric car crime figures, presenting them free to consumers to raise publioc awareness.
Only 45% of car crime is reported, except theft of vehicles to validate insurance claims.
When Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, under pressure revealed that there were 18,600 such car key offences in 2008. The Government recent statistics show a decrease of 14% in car crime. Car Key Thefts are reported as Burglary or Robbery, suppressing the real problem.
When the "missing" 18,600 are fed back in, the car crime picture changes from a 14% decrase to less than 2%. When the non reported cases are factored in, it shows an increase in car crime of 4%.
We have passed our findings onto Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling for him to investigate. It's in his interests to get to the truth, particulalry if it shows another example of Government spinning numbers for political gain.
I am a former serving Police Detective, now engaged in providing insurance protection for the victims of car theft.
Steve Bennett
Edited by rtj70 on 21/07/2009 at 23:50
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Of course it's so rare, you won't mind if I present just one example a day, every day, from now on...
tinyurl.com/nywj68
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Of course we never had violent burgalries before did we....
When the non reported cases are factored in, it shows an increase in car crime of 4%.
Of course you will have added those "non reported" figures into all the previous years figures before you came up with that I assume... or is it just a case of "lies, damned lies and statistics"...
Edited by b308 on 21/07/2009 at 21:24
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Crimeanalyst - if you're a former cop you'll be well aware that entering a house (by whatever means) to take the keys to the car IS burglary. To record such offences as theft is to lie about the burglary figures.
There has been an increasing trend to burgle in order to steal cars, since car security has improved. Very few of these burglaries are violent, if they were then they'd be robberies. No playing with stats here: break into a house to steal=burglary. Use force=robbery. Take the car off the street=theft. Just because the ultimate aim is to take the car doesn't mean that authorities should be recording car theft as the primary offence. Were they to do so they could suggest that burglary (a more serious offence) is down and theft (a lesser offence) is up. That would be a falsehood, wouldn't it!
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Break it down in to as many small compartments as you like. At the end of the day it all comes don to the same thing. Person A taking items of person B by use of fear, force or stealth.
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Hi Woodster -
Under the previous recording system, (pre 1997) the burglary would stand as the primary offence, you are quite correct. However, when the offender leaves the premises, in law the burglary offence is complete. He then takes the keys and commits a further offence of either Theft of the vehicle (if there is an intent to permanently deprive the owner) or TWOC taking without owners consent if no intention to permanently deprive exists.
We do not suggest that the car theft should be the primary offence, of course the brglary takes precedence. The falsehood as you put it, is in recording it solely as a burglary and not recording the seperate offence of car theft.
This is the point we are making. The 18,600 car key burglaries last year do not appear in the car theft stats. As it is, the Home Office minimised the burglary increase and optimised the car theft decrease. When the Car key numbers are included, car theft has increased.
In any event its all academic as the BCS reports that less than half of car thefts are reported to police anyway. If the BCS figures are more accurate, car crime has increased.
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CA,
I take your point...but you have to draw a line somewhere....i.e. choose a substantive offence and record it once.
The average house burglary, where the car goes could easily have the following:
Conspiracy to commit theft, ditto burglary, enclosed premises, criminal damage, attempted theft, attempted burglary, both substantive burglary connotations, theft, taking without consent, no insurance, etc
The same thing can happen with say rape, whereby the offence of burglary is complete as well. One of the offences isn't going to show up, but i'd like to think the most serious one is recorded.
The other problem with showing the two offences for the car going from a burglary, is our current system of measuring results. They'd both be shown as 'clear ups' wouldn't they... and that would skew the figures
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It must be really wearying to have a permanently dystopian view. I am sure you can get medication for it if you ask the doctor nicely.
Henry Mayhew observed and well documented the state of London in the mid 1800's. Now THAT was a time for crime!
The glass is more than half full for most of us. Whilst I appreciate that some people become victims of crime, there are an awful lot who have not. Trouble is, us Brits' have a tendency to whinge and whine about our lot when, in fact, it ain't bad at all.
The Aussies have a very aposite joke about us. "How do you know when a plane load of Poms have landed"? A) "You can still hear the whine when they turn the engines off".
Nothing breeds fear more than harping on about it all the time. I blame rolling 24hr news and speed/ease of communication. If you keep saying something, it becomes fact.
Some people need to create leverage by instigating a climate of fear.
Instead of slagging off the UK all the time, why not clear out, go live somewhere else, see how you get on? I'd just like to say I love living here, I am proud of the UK and the good far, far exceeds the bad.
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Totally with you tack, on all points. My wealthy friend went to live in Spain a couple of years ago, whinging about the UK as he left. He's back due to fear of crime. It was very real and far worse than here.
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Thank goodness for that, I thought I was the only one... with you, tack!
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>>The glass is more than half full for most of us.
I agree, but we are sleepwalking into a bonkers world where the law-abiding are micro-controlled, but the anti-social can more or less do as they like. The experiment is well advanced in the area of motoring.
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"but the anti-social can more or less do as they like"
But, go to any magistrates or crown court, look at the daily lists. People are being brought to book for their misdeeds (theft, burglary, assault, public order etc) The news will have you believe otherwise.
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And they are dealt such a severe blow they never commit another crime after that.
Funny then that you see the same names and addresses on the court lists month in and month out.
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BBC1's 'The truth about crime' tonight revealed that violent crime is down, year on year, since the 80's. This conclusion from one of the nation's leading facial surgeons who has been keeping records of hospital admissions for assault injuries. So, arguably more reliable figures than the BCS or those produced by Police since most assault victims don't report their crime, but they do seek treatment.
Can't be right, can it? it certainly won't help perpetuate the myth that crime is rising. Where's my Daily Wail gone....
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Not much work for a facial surgeon dealing with the increase in knife crime. Most victims of knives tend to be stabbed in the lower body, not the face.
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The prog was supposed to be about crooks breaking into homes to get at the keys to expensive cars on drives, but it was nothing of the sort 'for some reason'
So that's another hour of my life wasted watching the idiots lantern!
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So are we living in a more violent world than say Victorian times like some seem to think... personally I don't think we are... But unless we make the punishments a deterent rather than something that can be ignored by the criminal then we will fall back into the "bad old days"...
Back to motoring?!
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Although this logic at first appears to be the correct way to go one only has to look at America or Saudia Arabia for tough sentencing but the prisons are still suprisingly full.When there are have and have nots and many of the haves screw the system for what its worth who can really blame the have nots for trying to get something for nothing.
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trying to get something for nothing
Thought the benefits system did that Andy?! ;)
There still has to be a deterent and whilst some may still end up in jail a proper deterent will stop many... at the moment I see no deterents.
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Getting you hand chopped does not stop people in Saudi they still go to commit other crimes it is not unusual to see people without any arms but people still commit crimes they always have and always will.How many people still drink and drive in the UK thousands upon thousands and the penalty can be pretty harsh.
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I agree with Mr. X to the extent that perps don't see any deterrent in the current system. I've lived on two rough estates, and the law means nothing to many of these people. The same old faces are responsible for the majority of the crime. They'll periodically get caught and locked up for a bit, but will be straight back doing what they're doing again as soon as they're out. I was told this by a local police officer who seemed as genuinely exasperated at the situation as the residents who'd had their cars keyed for the third time that month.
I was speaking to a friend last weekend who left a bag containing her iPhone, £250 in cash and her house keys on a bus in London! It was handed in to a police station an hour later, with everything present and correct. There is a decent majority in British society. While we need to tackle crime, and not be complacent about it, we shouldn't lose sight of that very important fact.
This country, weather aside, is no worse than a lot of other places in my experience.
Cheers
DP
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... left a bag containing her iPhone...
But who'd want an iPhone? Now, had it been a Blackberry. :)
Flippancy aside, I agree with DP and Tack - Blighty is not as bad as it's painted.
Others around the world know this.
When border controls were relaxed, there was mass immigration into this country, not migration from it.
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