Good reasons why crime HAS fallen

By Andrew Haldenby, Director of Reform.

The Opposition – and Jonathan and Natalie – clearly can’t accept that crime has fallen.  I wonder why.  The principles of personal responsibility, property rights and good penal policy would suggest that it has.

The crime statistics show the following:

• Crime started falling in 1993, just after that government introduced a much stiffer sentencing regime and the prison population started rising. Since then the prison population has kept rising and crime has kept falling.
• At the same time as crime has been falling, people have been making a much better defence of their property. According to the latest British Crime Survey, for example, 91 per cent of cars now have central locking compared to only only 35 per cent in 1992, and big increases in the use of burglar alarms, deadlocks and window locks as well.

The implication is that England and Wales are safer because of a rising prison population and a better defense of property.  Sounds good to me.  And dare I say, shouldn’t Conservatives expect that to happen?  Or do people think that crime has risen DESPITE a rising prison population and better defense of property?