Thursday 25 June 2009

"Jailing family cuts crime to 20-yr low"

From The Metro:

The jailing of a notorious criminal family has apparently cut crime rates to a 20-year low.

Members of the Johnson gypsies were an 'organised and ruthless' gang, which committed 100 offences – including a series of stately home burglaries thought to have netted £80million.

Crime fell from more than 52,000 offences in 2006/7 to 44,000 last year, after their arrest, said Gloucester police.

Five men were convicted of conspiracy to commit burglary and jailed for a total of 50 years at Reading crown court.

5 comments:

Pavlov's Cat said...

I'm sure I read somewhere that 95% or more of serious crime in this country is caused by a relatively small number people who are nearly always 'known' to the police.
And that the police even with todays resources, simply following these people around 24/7 would see crime cut to levels unseen for a very long time.
Essex police tried a similar scheme recently with know burglars, burglarys fell 50%

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1190373/Theyre-Headcam-police-halve-rate-burglaries-shadowing-suspects-day-night.html

Just saying is all.

Schrödinger's dog said...

Another application of the Pareto principle.

Letters From A Tory said...

What a classic story. I'm sure Pavlov is right, but unfortunately an effective 'zero tolerance' approach still seems a long way off in the UK.

Mark Wadsworth said...

PC, SD, LT, exactly, but the maths puzzles me - can five men really commit 8,000 burglaries/crimes a year (assuming the entire reduction is down to them)? That's over four each per day, even if they don't take a day off.

AntiCitizenOne said...

So let's see.

80,000 K damage per year fixed at a cost of 200 K per year.

They'll get parole as this state just can't do maths.

Under a LVT lower crime = lower insurance bill = higher house prices = higher LVT payment = more money for police.

Under LVT, Rather than policing and jail being seen as a cost-centre they are actually seen as an investment.