| 1 | 1 | | Whether the sun comes out or not, most of us will have a nice day. But some won't. |
| 2 | | For, assuming it's an average sort of day, several thousands of us will be victims of crime. |
| 2 | 3 | | We thought until recently that, if we hadn't exactly beaten crime, then at least its |
| 4 | | annual increase had been stopped. But, at the end of June, the figures for the first three |
| 5 | | months of this year were published and proved the opposite to be true: crime is once again |
| 6 | | on the up and up. So much so that the rise of 15 per cent is the largest increase since Home |
| 7 | | Office records began. |
| 3 | 8 | | Why has this happened? Why has crime suddenly taken off in this totally |
| 9 | | unexpected way? The trouble is that no one knows. And we can't rationally decide how to |
| 10 | | deal with crime and prevent it from being repeated until we know why it happens in the |
| 11 | | first place. |
| 4 | 12 | | Logically, the police should be the ones to teIl us why people commit crimes. They, |
| 13 | | after all, are most in touch with the criminals. So Home Office minister John Patten asked |
| 14 | | the chief constables and they came up with some pretty traditional reasons. More petty |
| 15 | | crime related to drug abuse, lack of discipline at home and school, prison sentences too |
| 16 | | soft and too short, and so on. |
| 5 | 17 | | Some, or all, of these explanations may weIl be true. But the police might also have |
| 18 | | added to this list their failure to find the crooks involved. Ask the cops to track down a |
| 19 | | murderer and they will almost certainly succeed. But murder is relatively rare. Burglary |
| 20 | | and theft are the crimes that affect most of us and it's here th at the police have such a |
| 21 | | lousy record. Burglars and thieves have a two-out-of-three chance of never being caught. |
| 6 | 22 | | Even when crooks are caught, we don't really know what to do with them. On the |
| 23 | | whoie, we tend to throw them into jail for want of any better ideas. And while not many |
| 24 | | people would argue with the use of prison for serious crimes of violence and armed |
| 25 | | robbery, many now question the sense of locking someone up for non-payment of debts, |
| 26 | | shop-lifting or even minor burglary and theft. |
| 7 | 27 | | 'What?' 1 he ar you say. 'Why shouldn't a man who has terrified some old lady by |
| 28 | | breaking into her home and stealing her few pounds, go to prison?' 1 feel much the same |
| 29 | | way. The brute should be punished. Besides, locking him up, if only for a few months, will |
| 30 | | at least proteet other old ladies from his attentions while he's in jail. |
| 8 | 31 | | But it won't proteet them once he's let out again and that's what we need. It's all |
| 32 | | very weIl to punish an offender, but we must do more than that. We must do our very best |
| 33 | | to make sure he doesn't offend again. The truth is that, when it comes to educating people |
| 34 | | to give up crime, prison doesn't work. |
| 9 | 35 | | Perhaps it is the very awfulness and pointlessness of prison life that encourages |
| 36 | | people into ever more awful and pointless behaviour. Perhaps if we offered them a more |
| 37 | | positive way out of their criminal behaviour, some at least would respond. |
| 10 | 38 | | Germany has been trying this for some years now and has found it highly successful. |
| 39 | | Instead of sending people guilty of non-violent crimes to prison, they have been giving |
| 40 | | more of them alternative forms of punishment so that they can repay their debts to the |
| 41 | | community. The result is that Gerrnany now has a falling crime ra te and fewer ex-prisoners |
| 42 | | are being convicted. |
| 11 | 43 | | The Government is in favour of trying the same experiment here in Britain. It has |
| 44 | | already begun among young offenders and , while it is too early to predict success , |
| 45 | | everyone is keeping their fingers crossed. |
