UK: Do you feel safer where you live than you did ten years ago?

Rates of murder and violent crime have fallen more rapidly in the UK in the past decade than anywhere else in Western Europe, according to the first Peace Index.

http://www.visionofhumanity.org/

 

Must be the remains of your peaceful past.

 

A lot of crime, they dont bother to record nowadays. Or people dont bother to report it.
U might as well have Enid Blyton doing the crime stats....

Id give an example involving Noddy, but perhaps not...

 

Such as? Murder? Rape? Isn't rape reported more now? Isn't police cautions pushing certain stats up? It isn't just about crime. Where are the stats to show certain crime such as murder and rape - is increasing.
It is actually about perception, btw.

 

On rape, theres a vast number of false accusations. And likewise, some women dont report actual rapes.
Murder, hmm, maybe there are more non-residents murdered these days.

Speaking to friends who are practising lawyers, and judges, and even cops, so much crime people think "fuck it why bother making a complaint". Likewise, when someone demands a crime is recorded, but has to go to the PCA to get it recorded.

Cops get promotions thro good stats, so they make the stats utter bullshit. Politicians get voted in. So absolutely it IS about perception. But a DISTORTED one, because we're only seeing a proportion of whats actually commited.

For example, much fraud etc, the cops wont even bother to record eg credit card fruad is now bizarrely often considered a "civil" matter. Likewise, fraud by bankers is still considered a "civil matter", probably on public policy grounds. A lot of crimes are swept under the carpet as "anti-social beahviour" even thro statutes make it clear that they are criminal offences..

As Britain gets more Americanised, more like an international centre, crime increases.
You only need look at somewhere like London with its gang and gun crime culture.

 

IamnotaMan

Well, it is not totally based on rape/murder stats. It is a general picture. I guess we could argue till the cows came how with regards to stats.

Why would the police actively provide the means to make it easier for certain crimes to be reported, and actively provide the means for more crimes to be recorded (see thread regarding police cautions).

How is the WHOLE of the UK becoming Americanised?

 

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/the-poorest-parts-of-britain-101529584.html

Rising prices and stagnant (at best) wages mean that Britons are feeling poorer, well, most Britons.

Because new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show one part of the country has done rather well over the last few years.

The ONS took a look at how much money households have left after meeting essential costs like mortgages, rents, council tax and heating costs.

It found that Northern Ireland was the poorest country in the UK, with a disposable income of just £13,966 per household, this was followed by Wales (£14,129 a household), Scotland (£15,654) and England (£16,251).

 

Its always been easy to report crimes. Cops can then say "fuck it, no crime was commited".
or "Thankyou for that, excuse me while I disappear and scratch my knob".

Cautions is completely separate to what i was talking about.

More Americanised in many ways. TV, rap music, temporary/unstable employment, more expensive university education, privatising everything, mass immigration, increased use of guns, mass "downsizing" of labour forces, fucking up public services- forcing people to go private. Global corporations taking over from local/nationa/intl businesses. Its not called the 51st State for nothing...

Compare the US and Canada. One has a level State activity similar to Europe, the other is "survival of the fittest/ law of the jungle". Which one has the huge violent crime levels?

 

My point was, more crimes are reported, it is easier to report crimes.

Problem? How many UK shows are transfered to the US .

?

It wasn't done on a whim. Wasn't there detailed studies regarding uni funding going on into the next decade or so? Isn't it the case this issue is global?

Eh?

Eh?

Who calls it that?

 

If people are poor, or in a "law of the jungle" environment where they are unsure of their future, they'll commit more crimes.

Nothing revolutionary about that...
Try comparing crime in Belgravia, to crime in the East End of Ldon.

 

Why so Londoncentric?

They picture all areas of the UK, not just London.

London is a shit hole. The entire UK is not. On balance the whole of the UK is peaceful.

 

OK Birmingham vs Alderley Edge..

 

Compared to?
Iraq? Nigeria?
Sweden?

Are we talking inner Glasgow or County Durham?

PS not all of Ldon is a shithole. Much of it is tho.

 

The E.U, and in comparison to itself 10 years ago.

 

10 years ago, i was 11. i can't remember giving much of a shit about crime. i knew all the places nearby where if you went, you'd get mugged, 10 years on and the same rules seem to apply to the same areas, really, i'm just willing to chance it more being bigger, and mugging is by no means the certainty that it used to seem, but that's just my perception plus experience, not a response to crime statistics.

it's stopped being "never go here. here be dragons." and started to be more "know where you are, don't be a fucking idiot." plus i know more good and bad areas knowing more of london. but yeah, my perception of crime has always been based on experience and word-of-mouth more than crime statistics or the papers.

 

If someone breaks into your house, or someone attacks you. Kill them. You will get off for self defence and there will be no repercussions. No one stalking you for having them locked up when they get out. The cops are corrupt, the government is pure evil. Sort your own safety. You'll be better off.

 

10 years ago I was living in Finland and didn't really worry about these things. I feel safe enough in the UK but I do worry about what kind of world my daughter will have to grow up in. So that's why at 3 years old she is already in a martial arts class.

 

Considering I was 10 years old a decade ago and lived in a semi-quiet suburban area that was (at one point) in the top 3 nicest areas to live in England (Epsom and Ewell), and now I live in a place that is known to be rough, was one of the leading towns in which the riots took place and has extremely high levels of unemployment (Croyden) - no, I don't.

But, I have witnessed crimes in both areas. Before moving out here, and many years before becoming a parent, I was involved in that 'scene' of drugs and crime. As with every town or city, there are nice parts and not so nice parts, the crime tends to happen more in the not so nice parts, and from experience is done by bored teenagers and the poorer people. Thrre are always exceptions however, and some things DO go unrecorded, a lot actually (again, from experience). I was beaten up at 11 years old by a group of 10 or so older girls, for no particular reason other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time. That wasn't reported, the only witness was my friend who also felt the beating. Albeit that was 9 years ago now, but I've witnessed a lot of random crime like that, fights that just disperse and no action taken, people stealing lead from roofs, and almost nessicary crime like hungry people stealing food.

I would say there is a lot of crime that isn't reported and a lot that goes unnoticed.
I witnessed something a few days ago as me and a neighbour from our block left for work. Another neighbour in our block ran past us openly carrying a big kitchen knife and chased after some guy, who was shouting at him to stop beating his 'misses'. Thats true, as they live above me and I frequently hear it happen, I have reported it annonymously but I've seen no action taken despite two young children being involved. Which leads to another point - how much crime actually happens publicly? That actually CAN be reported or witnessed? I am the only neighbour who can hear what goes on in the flat above me, but if I couldn't then how would anybody know?

 

Now that I'm on the subject. My best friend witnessed this the other day, she is to be a witness in crown court. One of those people is an ex-boyfriend, the other was a good friend who I used to be with almost everyday. This happened minutes from that quiet suburban house I grew up in. It was over furniture - yes, thats right, furniture.

http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/s/2132083_six_men_charged_over_ewell_stabbing_fight

And a few years ago http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/topstories/9069152.Father_and_two_sons_sentenced_after_drugs_and_firearms_raid/ ..They were family friends and possibly the nicest family we knew. I was with R just days before it happened. (Everyone knows everyone in Ewell).

So to conclude, even the nicest of Suburban areas are still crime ridden, whether it be crime as public as these two which were reported on the news, or quieter crimes that get no coverage, or don't even get recorded. You can't always trust stats, in these cases, experience is much more reliable. Also, the people involved in these crimes were not 'bad' people, I know that it seems this way, especially as it is stabbings and drugs/firearms raids, but they aren't, they are family people who host bbq's in their gardens and go to work in their 9-5 jobs.

 

Yeah I agree. In some places, recorded or even reported crime is the tip of the iceberg. Yet Odon seems to be working for David Cameron on this subject hehehe...

I'm surprised at Esher btw. The bits of Surrey I know never struck me as violent. I imagined it to be all tax fraud, and toffs molesting their stepdaughters etc... And John Terry accidentally shooting ballboys at Cob.ham..