Law -
Crime 2
England
and Wales were second only to Australia in the
examination of "victimisation rates",
details of which appeared in the Economist. There
was a downward trend in crime levels from
previous surveys in 1991 and 1999. People in
England and Wales were at greater risk than
anywhere else of having their cars stolen: 2.6
per cent fell victim to vehicle theft. The
average rate was 1.2 per cent and the Japanese
were least likely to have their cars stolen with
a victim rate of just 0.1 per cent. Theft from
cars was highest in Poland, where nine per cent
of people had items stolen from their vehicles.
In England and Wales the level was eight per
cent. The percentage of the population which
suffered "contact crime" in England and
Wales was 3.6 per cent, compared with 1.9 per
cent in the United States and 0.4 per cent in
Japan. Burglary rates in England and Wales were
also among the highest recorded. Australia (3.9
per cent) and Denmark (3.1 per cent) had higher
rates of burglary with entry than England and
Wales (2.8 per cent).
The risk of robbery was comparatively low in all
the countries surveyed. Highest rates were in
Poland, where 1.8 per cent of the population said
they had been robbed in 1999, followed by
Australia and England and Wales (both 1.2 per
cent). By far the lowest robbery risks were in
Japan and Northern Ireland (both 0.1 per cent).
After Australia and England and Wales, the
highest prevalence of crime was in Holland (25
per cent), Sweden (25 per cent) and Canada (24
per cent). The United States, despite its high
murder rate, was among the middle ranking
countries with a 21 per cent victimisation rate.
Portugal, Japan and Northern Ireland, each with
15 per cent, recorded the lowest overall
victimisation rates in the survey which was
conducted by Leiden University in Holland and
published by the Dutch justice ministry.
Children
as young as nine are flocking to join violent
street gangs and taking part in crimes such as
drug dealing, theft and even murder. Figures
suggest there are now as many as 30,000 gang
members across England and Wales and the numbers
are rising rapidly. The number of gang members
aged under 16 has doubled in the past year and
nearly half of all gang murders committed with
firearms now involve victims under the age of 18.
London, Birmingham and Manchester have the most
extreme problems, closely followed by Liverpool,
Leeds and Bradford, while other towns and cities
are increasingly experiencing problems associated
with gang culture. Many gangs are sophisticated
and some have access to private doctors who will
treat gunshot wounds without reporting the
incident to the police. Increasingly, gang
activity is centred around schools. A typical
secondary school in a gang area will have up to
20 hardcore members among the pupils, 30 or 40
associate members and up to 100 or more who are
marginally involved.
A
boy aged EIGHT mugged two women pensioners, but
police are powerless to act because children
under ten cannot be prosecuted. The thug swore at
a 73-year-old and tried to wrestle her to the
floor. Two days later he attacked another elderly
woman, who needed hospital treatment after being
knocked over. The gran, who is too scared to be
named, said of the daylight attack, “He sat
on a wall looking totally innocent. I didn’t
realise he had followed me until I entered an
alleyway. All of a sudden he shouted, ‘Give
us your f****** money’. He grabbed my
shopping bag and twisted it, which hurt my arm. I
ran(?) to a house where some people called the
police.” She added, “If nothing is done
now, what will he be like in two years
time?”
Police
said they were appalled after two nine-year-old
girls were captured on CCTV throwing a brick
through the window of a car from a motorway
footbridge. The pair, who were too young to be
prosecuted, were quickly traced to the bridge
over the M25 near Merstham, Surrey, and taken
home after being caught targeting motorists.
Chief Inspector Mark Clark, from the Strategic
Roads Unit, said, "This really has to stop
now before more people are killed or
maimed." He added, "I warn both parents
and their children who engage in this activity
that prosecution for this very serious offence
will always be our objective." As the
culprits were under the age of criminal
responsibility, why were their parents not
prosecuted as they would have been had the girls
not been attending school?
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