14 DAY TRIAL // Security forces in the United Kingdom are, as usual, above average, and well beyond the necessary manpower departments spread around the country would need. Authorities constantly invest in new equipment, as in weapons, training programs, cars, vans, as well as in new recruits, but leading University of Ottawa expert, Professor Irwin Waller argues that the island nation should put more emphasis on counteracting the triggering factors of criminal behavior, as in poorness, demeaning living conditions, broken families and other such socio-economic factors.
The expert argues, quoted by BBC News, that the correction system, made up of police departments, court systems and penitentiaries, is sufficiently well developed to allow a shift of resources to crime prevention as well. Waller also draws attention to the fact that British authorities have failed to tackle this problem, even though they repeatedly promised to do so. The renowned crime-reduction expert also says that it's been quite some time since the current authorities took office, and yet, they are continuing the same line of harmful policies that their predecessors favored as well.
According to a new report, devised for the Policy Exchange think tank, the amount of damage caused by criminal activities in the UK will be at about £78 billion, or roughly $118.5 billion, this year. On average, the new paper goes on to say, this means that each household in the country will have to support repairing these damages with about £3,000, or approximately $4,600. The Home Office defends itself by saying that the chances of a British citizen being a victim of crime is “historically low” and that steps are being taken to address the problem.
At the time when former British Prime Minister Tony Blair took office, in 1997, he vowed to address both crime rates and their causes swiftly and with great resolve. However, ten years later, when he stepped down as leader, in 2007, he had not yet succeeded in doing so, and had registered little progress in his endeavors. Waller pinpoints that preventing at least one in ten criminals from stealing, robbing, breaking in or killing could potentially save millions of pounds, funds that could then be used for some other projects.
Ministries in the UK have been also severely criticized for failing to attend meetings of the National Crime Reduction Board, which is a body created for this very purpose, as part of a crime-fighting strategy, launched as far back as 2002. Waller, who is a distinguished member of the International Center for the Prevention of Crime, tells that participation in these meetings would have given the ministries at least some idea of the extent of the danger the UK is facing.