Why I think crime was lower in the past

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Author: Patrick Crozier
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The following make me think that crime was lower in the past:

  • Conversations with the older generation. Books and films from the era
  • Old photographs of railways and trains show almost no evidence of vandalism or graffiti
  • Statistics such as these
  • Accounts by policemen from bygone eras such as this one
  • When I was growing up in the 1970s armed robberies made national news. They don't anymore. Only murders will do
  • (As I understand it) in the 1930s it wasn't a political issue
  • In one of his essays, George Orwell, described the situation (in about 1940) in which crime was almost non-existent save for some well-known areas in the larger cities. Now, everywhere has its "Fight City"
  • The testimony of a crime correspondent from the 1930s

I must confess I am not entirely sure about this. There is evidence to the contrary. For instance:

  • Swedish hospital journals (I assume that this measures admissions as a result of crime) which suggest that crime is about constant. Yes, I know it is from Sweden but there is no particular reason to think that things are any different in the UK.
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Q&A

But couldn't the lack of graffiti be because the spray can hadn't been invented?

  • Well, it's been invented in Japan too but there is precious little graffiti there. My understanding is that the same applies in places like Singapore

But maybe crime was low because there was nothing to steal

  • That would not account for the rise in violent crime
  • As Norman Dennis points out, there was plenty to steal

Oh, but my granny/grandad says that crime was much higher in his/her day

Yes, I hear this from time to time (see here, for example). It is just possible that both are true, in that high crime was localised in certain areas. But even that is better than what we have now. In most of these stories the crimes often include an element of sectarianism/racism. I'm not condoning it but that seems to me to be a rather different species of crime.

So, why do you think it has grown?

  • Partly because of the Welfare State. See here for the mechanism
  • Partly because of changes in the criminal justice system
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