[Wildwell]

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/ ... s_full.pdf

Right a few more clues, although it doesn’t answer the basic question – why has crime risen so much post war?

Social exclusion

Low income, Lack of access to transport, Poor environment.

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/ ... s_full.pdf

http://www.crimeinfo.org.uk/servlet/fac ... factsheets


Compared with the general population people in prison are:
• 13 times as likely to have been in care as a child.
• 13 times as likely to be unemployed.
• 10 times as likely to have been a regular truant.
• 2.5 times as likely to have had a family member convicted of a criminal offence.
• 6 times as likely to have been a young father.
• 15 times as likely to be HIV positive.

Basic skills

• 80 per cent of prisoners have the writing skills at or below the level of an 11-year-old child.
• 65 per cent have numeracy skills at or below the level of an 11-year-old child.
• 50 per cent have reading skills at or below the level of an 11-year-old child.

Health background

• 60 to 70 per cent of prisoners were using drugs before imprisonment,
• Over 70 per cent suffer from at least two mental disorders,
• And 20 per cent of male and 37 per cent of female sentenced prisoners have attempted suicide in the past.
• Around half of prisoners had no GP before they came into custody;
• One prison drugs project found that although 70% of those entering the prison had a drug misuse problem, 80% of these had never had any contact with drug treatment services.

95% are men and 12% are black

Research has shown that alcohol is a contributory factor in many instances of crime and disorder. According to the latest British Crime Survey, victims judged that offenders were under the influence of alcohol in 40% of incidents. Drunkenness is associated with a majority of murders, manslaughters and stabbings and half of domestic assaults.

Poor Parenting

Feckless' and abusive parents are to be blamed by the government for youth crime and unruly behaviour in schools, it has been reported.
Education Secretary Estelle Morris will argue bad parenting has created a "cycle of disrespect" among children, in a speech to the Association of Teachers and Lecturers on Wednesday, according to The Observer newspaper.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/1890222.stm

Low self esteem

http://www.jrf.org.uk/knowledge/finding ... cy/n71.asp

Poor diet

Encouraging healthier eating could be the government's secret weapon in the fight against crime, according to experts.

A study by researchers at the University of Oxford has found that adding vitamins and other vital nutrients to young people's diets can cut crime.

They found that improving the diets of young offenders at a maximum security institution in Buckinghamshire cut offences by 25%.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2063117.stm

65 per cent. of arrestees provided a urine sample that tested positive for one or more illegal drug.

http://www.parliament.the-stationery-of ... 212w12.htm

Trends in drug use

Although opiate addiction and other 'drug problems' were recognised a hundred years ago, political concern in the UK dates from the 1950s when their recreational use began to spread among young people. The association between cannabis and protest movements in the 1960s attracted further attention, as did the arrival of LSD. Some problems, like barbiturate misuse, have largely disappeared. Others, like amphetamine misuse, have persisted. The 1980s and 1990s saw a heroin epidemic involving inhalation ('chasing the dragon') that affected teenagers as well as young adults. Increasing quantities of cocaine also entered the country, used both as powder and in its smokeable form ('crack'). From the late 1980s, deaths among young Ecstasy-users shifted media interest to the emergence of a 'dance drug' culture. At the start of the twenty-first century rising seizures of heroin and its widening use in major cities and elsewhere have become a renewed focus of concern.

Plus graphs showing rises in seizures:

Sources and actual figures:

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs2/hosb402.pdf

Report on binge drinking: Long-term increase since the 1950s, drink more than double the amount consumed then

http://www.ias.org.uk/factsheets/binge-drinking.pdf


So crime is caused by:

Social inequality: Education, transport, poor housing coupled with:

Poor diet and parenting

Coupled with (mainly) drink and drugs

Drugs in particular have increased because of cheap oil transport.


Therefore post peak, will crime become better or worse?

[ashurbanipal]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')hat do they mean when they say "it appears that this correlation reflects causation"? Appears? Does it matter how it "appears" to them. Maybe it would "appear" different to someone who wasn't expecting causation.

[ashurbanipal]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')ocial inequality: Education, transport, poor housing coupled with:

[Chaparral]

Francis Fukuyama offers some interesting ideas on the subject in his book "The Great Disruption". He backs up his ideas where possible with large number of end notes. He basically finds that periods of social upheaval and dislocation from existing places and livelihoods are associated with rising crime and periods with static life styles and less migration are associated with less crime.

Kinda makes me think that increased crime will capitalize the "E" in long Emergency.

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Chaparral', 'F')rancis Fukuyama offers some interesting ideas on the subject in his book "The Great Disruption". He backs up his ideas where possible with large number of end notes. He basically finds that periods of social upheaval and dislocation from existing places and livelihoods are associated with rising crime and periods with static life styles and less migration are associated with less crime.

Kinda makes me think that increased crime will capitalize the "E" in long Emergency.

[ashurbanipal]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')rying to say that reducing the income disparity will reduce crime

[foodnotlawns]

I noticed one of the liberals saying that the reason for crime is "social exclusion."

Boo . . . hoo.

Who's job is it to do the including? I say the liberal elites who claim "exclusion" is the cause of crime should all be forced to adopt some of these poor "excluded" people, to live in the same house with them!

Whining about "social exclusion" is really complaining about freedom of association. Why don't we say that pretty girls have to date nerds? And that good looking guys should have to date fat girls?

Liberals attempt to create obligation, where no natural obligation exists. White guilt is like a backpack -- just take the back pack off and throw it away. You don't owe the colored hordes anything whatsoever. If you are White, you owe it to your ancestors to breed more White people. Now that's your Natural Obligation, whether you recognize it or not.

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ashurbanipal', '
')Why do you think the causation is spurious?

[Wildwell]

No one is near the nub of the problem yet – btw I was merely quoting official sources and making suggestions. Like the man says, I don't think social exclusion or low income automatically makes you a criminal. In fact to suggest such a thing is ludicrous. There was far more poverty in the past, yet, crime has risen.

Let's be a little more controversial. Has modern society produced layabouts with time (and money) on their hands? As they say the devil makes work for (some) idle hands. So I ask the question again, will the problem we worse post peak or better?

[Keith_McClary]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Wildwell', '
')- In 1955 fewer than 500,000 crimes were recorded by the police in England and Wales. By the end of the 1960s there were over 1.5 million. By the end of the 1970s there were 2.7 million, today there are 5.9 million.

Other western countries are much the same, so why has crime risen?

- TV, computer games, movies?
- Drug culture and rise in availability?
- 1960s (sexual) liberation and single parent households?
- Both parents going to work for home/consumer objects?
- End of national service?
- Consumer/advertising culture?
- Parents spending less time at home – working further away?
- Destruction of religion?
- End of institutions/job for life?

BTW Oil use has a close correlating curve with crime..

[WebHubbleTelescope]

In some states and countries, this is considered illegal:

Guess why?

http://mobjectivist.blogspot.com/2006/0 ... eaker.html

[DigitalCubano]

Lemme guess: cuz its a fixed gear bike?

I'm not suprised. Given their increased popularity, I figured it would only be a matter of time before they caught the ire of lawmakers.

[SILENTTODD]

On the streets I ride my bike on to my work every day, sounds like a Suicide Machine! I brake all the time! To avoid traffic that has not seen me, to people pulling out of their drive ways. I have recently started using a Schwinn Mesa GSD mountain bike for my daily commutes to work. But I still must pretend I’m Invisible to avoid being hit and killed

[bobcousins]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'N')icole LaBrie, a 23-year-old bike messenger, found out the hard way this summer that police don't consider that braking when she got a $64.80 ticket.

She was stopped for going the wrong way on a one-way street, for which she also was fined.

[DigitalCubano]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('bobcousins', 'T')here is no good reason not to have a hand brake fitted, even if you never use it. Cyclists like to style themselves as social revolutionaries, but laws are generally designed to enable everyone to share the public space safely.

[gg3]

What's needed is for fixie riders to stage various demonstrations of their capabilities to control the bikes, and invite the public, and invite representatives from various police agencies. This is an exercise in having to educate people.

That being said, yes there are ways someone can get out of control if their feet go off the pedals whilst the machine is rolling down a significant hill. The risk I'm concerned about is not to the rider him/herself, after all, consenting adults can choose their risks. What I'm concerned about is the potential hazard to others on the road.

For the latter reason, it seems reasonable to require a hand brake, at least in hilly localities such as San Francisco, even if it is rarely used. The design of the machine can be adapted so that the aesthetics are not unduly compromised, but aesthetics come second to protecting innocent members of the public.

And even if accidents involving fixies are rare, the increased popularity of these will eventually result in a serious accident, and the repercussions of that might be used against all bicycles generally.

[WebHubbleTelescope]

Now it was time for Officer Barnum to ask questions. He asked Holland,
“What would you do if your chain broke?”

Holland:
“I would use my feet.”

Officer Barnum:
“What if your leg muscles had a spasm?”

Holland:
“I’m not sure…these are emergency situations.”


I can't stand these dumb bastards in charge of enforcing the law. As someone else remarked:

"OK, that is real fair. What would you,Mr. Judge do if the brake cable on your car broke??? Try using your feet then."

[wisconsin_cur]

CNN.Com
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Attorney General Michael Mukasey warned Wednesday that organized criminal networks have penetrated portions of the international energy market and tried to control energy resources.
Attorney General Michael Mukasey speaks Wednesday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. In a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, he said similar efforts have targeted the international financial system by injecting billions of illicit funds to try to corrupt financial service providers.

[Ludi]

Diversion in order to allow for more "war on terror" activities.


International criminals = terrorists

[Ferretlover]

I honestly don't know if this is true.
I haven't heard anything else about this.
Given the history of organized crime's activities, it would make sense.
Unfortunately, I don't trust our government to tell the truth as far as I could throw my house.
I wonder how heavily organized crime is involved in food markets?

OH! and,
International criminals = terrorists=corrupt governments