fallingblock
Member
The Sunday Times, London
February 08, 2004
Official: England is international soft touch for criminals
Will Iredale and David Robertson
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-993582,00.html
FEWER burglars and robbers are convicted in England and Wales
than in other leading western nations, according to a study of
crime trends by the American government.
The research, by the US Department of Justice, shows that England
and Wales have had some of the largest increases in theft yet
some of the biggest falls in conviction rates.
Robbery suspects in America are now five times more likely to be
convicted than those in England and Wales, while convicted
burglars across the Atlantic are twice as likely to be punished.
The study of eight countries amounts to an indictment of the
prosecuting agencies, including the Crown Prosecution Service
(CPS) and police, exposing for the first time the gap between the
best and worst countries.
In the best - Australia - robbers are seven times more likely to
be convicted than in England and Wales, where only 18% of
recorded offences result in a conviction.
The research, which will be published later this month, is the
most comprehensive yet conducted into international crime trends
spanning nearly two decades. Teams of academics in each of the
countries used sophisticated calculations to compare data from
each nation.
They found that America is the most successful in improving
conviction rates for burglary, up by 50% between 1981 and 1999.
The rate in England and Wales fell by half, the worst record of
the countries studied. For the 889,000 break-ins last year, only
26,300 offenders were convicted - a rate of less than 2.9%.
Robbery convictions in England have remained almost static during
the same period, according to the research conducted in Britain
by Professor David Farrington, a criminologist at Cambridge
University. Such convictions have nearly doubled in Australia and
have risen by 25% in America.
Experts attribute the American success to its "zero tolerance"
approach where minor crimes are blitzed by police and severely
punished. This has led to a tenfold increase in America's jail
population since the mid-1970s and lower crime rates. American
criminals also serve more time in prison. Convicted robbers have
spent an average of 40 months in jail over the two decades, while
those sentenced in Britain served 20 months.
"Here in the United States we have been on an incarceration
binge," said Alfred Blumstein, professor of public policy at
Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. "Before, a burglar had
to work hard to get into prison. But there has been a big
increase in incarceration rates and much more attention is paid
to these sorts of crime."
While robberies nearly quadrupled in England and Wales from less
than 21,000 to almost 79,000 over the two decades, they fell by
10% in America. In the same period, burglaries in England and
Wales increased by a third, while falling by a third in America.
The tougher American approach has been accompanied by a huge
expansion in prisons. In Britain, by comparison, courts have been
advised to use alternative methods of punishment to ease the
overcrowding in jails. Two years ago Lord Woolf, the lord chief
justice, proposed community punishments for convicted burglars,
who would previously have been jailed for up to 18 months.
Based on this advice Judge David Radford of Snaresbrook crown
court in east London allowed Danny Coulson, a 28-year-old drug
addict, to walk free despite confessing to 18 burglaries. Coulson
was given a 12-month drug test and treatment order and an
18-month community rehabilitation order.
England's poor conviction rates have also been blamed on the
bureaucratic burdens on police officers which distract them from
frontline roles, and the incompetence of the CPS.
An investigation by The Sunday Times two years ago revealed that
case files were routinely lost and prosecutors were failing to
gather sufficient evidence to take cases to trial.
Official figures for 2001 showed that 172,000 cases out of a
total of 1.4m were discontinued by the CPS; 6,000 were dropped
because lawyers failed to prepare paperwork in time.
David Blunkett, the home secretary, has moved to limit jury
trials. He is also introducing tougher sentences for burglars and
is championing antisocial behaviour orders to stop troublemakers
taking over neighbourhoods.
It looks as if the situation in England really is getting worse.
February 08, 2004
Official: England is international soft touch for criminals
Will Iredale and David Robertson
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-993582,00.html
FEWER burglars and robbers are convicted in England and Wales
than in other leading western nations, according to a study of
crime trends by the American government.
The research, by the US Department of Justice, shows that England
and Wales have had some of the largest increases in theft yet
some of the biggest falls in conviction rates.
Robbery suspects in America are now five times more likely to be
convicted than those in England and Wales, while convicted
burglars across the Atlantic are twice as likely to be punished.
The study of eight countries amounts to an indictment of the
prosecuting agencies, including the Crown Prosecution Service
(CPS) and police, exposing for the first time the gap between the
best and worst countries.
In the best - Australia - robbers are seven times more likely to
be convicted than in England and Wales, where only 18% of
recorded offences result in a conviction.
The research, which will be published later this month, is the
most comprehensive yet conducted into international crime trends
spanning nearly two decades. Teams of academics in each of the
countries used sophisticated calculations to compare data from
each nation.
They found that America is the most successful in improving
conviction rates for burglary, up by 50% between 1981 and 1999.
The rate in England and Wales fell by half, the worst record of
the countries studied. For the 889,000 break-ins last year, only
26,300 offenders were convicted - a rate of less than 2.9%.
Robbery convictions in England have remained almost static during
the same period, according to the research conducted in Britain
by Professor David Farrington, a criminologist at Cambridge
University. Such convictions have nearly doubled in Australia and
have risen by 25% in America.
Experts attribute the American success to its "zero tolerance"
approach where minor crimes are blitzed by police and severely
punished. This has led to a tenfold increase in America's jail
population since the mid-1970s and lower crime rates. American
criminals also serve more time in prison. Convicted robbers have
spent an average of 40 months in jail over the two decades, while
those sentenced in Britain served 20 months.
"Here in the United States we have been on an incarceration
binge," said Alfred Blumstein, professor of public policy at
Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. "Before, a burglar had
to work hard to get into prison. But there has been a big
increase in incarceration rates and much more attention is paid
to these sorts of crime."
While robberies nearly quadrupled in England and Wales from less
than 21,000 to almost 79,000 over the two decades, they fell by
10% in America. In the same period, burglaries in England and
Wales increased by a third, while falling by a third in America.
The tougher American approach has been accompanied by a huge
expansion in prisons. In Britain, by comparison, courts have been
advised to use alternative methods of punishment to ease the
overcrowding in jails. Two years ago Lord Woolf, the lord chief
justice, proposed community punishments for convicted burglars,
who would previously have been jailed for up to 18 months.
Based on this advice Judge David Radford of Snaresbrook crown
court in east London allowed Danny Coulson, a 28-year-old drug
addict, to walk free despite confessing to 18 burglaries. Coulson
was given a 12-month drug test and treatment order and an
18-month community rehabilitation order.
England's poor conviction rates have also been blamed on the
bureaucratic burdens on police officers which distract them from
frontline roles, and the incompetence of the CPS.
An investigation by The Sunday Times two years ago revealed that
case files were routinely lost and prosecutors were failing to
gather sufficient evidence to take cases to trial.
Official figures for 2001 showed that 172,000 cases out of a
total of 1.4m were discontinued by the CPS; 6,000 were dropped
because lawyers failed to prepare paperwork in time.
David Blunkett, the home secretary, has moved to limit jury
trials. He is also introducing tougher sentences for burglars and
is championing antisocial behaviour orders to stop troublemakers
taking over neighbourhoods.
It looks as if the situation in England really is getting worse.
) and a man who ran over and killed a child can successfully appeal a sentence of eight months imprisonment, then I would suggest the system is in urgent need of attention.
