Jul 19 2007
Parliament boosts crime figures
Amidst all the talk about the crime rate one obvious point is overlooked. Parliament is constantly pushing it up by creating more and more offences. If the government wished to get the crime rate down, one of the ways would be to review all the things currently treated as crimes, and reduce the numbers. Then the authorities could concentrate their efforts on detecting and prosecuting offenders.
Most people think there are two types of crime that matter and need proper police and court attention.
The first most serious are crimes of violence against people, ranging from murder through rape to assault. We all agree these are crimes,and expect the authorities to devote enough time and resource to finding offenders and prosecuting them.??
The second are crimes against property, where someone’s assets or belongings are stolen or damaged by whatever means. People do expect the authorities to prosecute offenders who may range from those who have broken into someone’s house to steal,??to those who have ??taken money out of??someone’s ??account?? by abusing a position of trust.
Many of the new??"crimes" are failures by people to follow the requirements of various regulatory regimes, where civil action and redress may be more appropriate.??
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John Redwood has been the Member of Parliament for Wokingham since 1987. First attending Kent College, Canterbury, he graduated from Magdalen College...
I have always believed that simplification is a policy well worth following. The more complex a system the less efficiently it functions. This surely applies in the Criminal Justice system. There is a need to go back to basics in many areas and to rethink what our laws are there for. This will be a massive task but it is one that the Conservatives should not shirk. It needs doing. If I may be so bold to suggest, such a task would well suit your logical approach.
Excellent piece.
I was not previously aware you were in the anti-drug-prohibition camp - is that now Conservative party policy? It would certainly take a chunk out of the crime figures.
Reply:No it is not Conservative policy to legalise drugs.
A lot of these ‘new’ crimes are dictated by the EU. Other EU nations just nod their heads, transpose directives, then put them on a shelf and forget about them. The only time we seem to turn a blind eye to EU rules is when Brits go there, quite legally, to buy fags and booze.
With ‘no win no fee’ hawks and ambulance chasers civil redress can also cause problems, especially for small businesses.
Prosecution of offences is a very British thing to do, all governments have transposed EU requirements into our law as criminal offences. Many EU laws are just petty and not worth enforcing. Mind you because the EU makes so many of our laws now Parliament seems almost stuck for something to do. As a result we get a raft of dodgy laws. New Labour’s laws are even worse than the EU’s if you ask me.
For example now, if I go down to the pub tonight, then go outside to smoke (as I now must), but it’s raining so I stand under a covered alleyway to shelter, technically I am smoking in a ’substanially enclosed public place’ and become a criminal.
This is not wrong. But numbers of crimes recorded has also been put up by CCTV systems - where incidents are logged as crimes with very little chance of clear up - and also the greater number of bobbies and PCSOs - more access, more reports by a larger factor than clear ups increase.
Postscript: *hug* you’ve had a couple of bad days as a party …