Graham Parry,
UK
You cannot simply blame alcohol, as the Government appears to be doing. You have to look at the real root of the problem, which is the death of society. More family friendly policies are required to keep the family together. For example, the abolition of the Married Person's Tax Allowance was not a good signal to young people.
Graham Parry,
UK
Apart from the extreme views (i.e. death sentence) I agree with most suggestions. I am working in Italy at the moment and the Carabinieri are everywhere. Okay, they are in cars but it doesn't take much to find and stop someone. We must crack down on the prisons, they should be clean, not degrading but should have no television etc, no perks at all.
We should also sort out the benefits system to make people work for a living.
Gareth,
UK
Once again when there is a debate about crime, someone says that the police should not spend so much of their time investigating "trivial" speeding offences. Speeding is not "trivial". If motorist speeding regulations were not enforced, the police would be spending more time investigating crashes and injuries so they would have even less time to investigate "real" street crimes.
Mark K,
UK
Zero tolerance, proper sentencing, putting an end to cosy prisons, and making criminals actually repay their debt to society. It's time someone silenced the mindless few who campaign for prisoners' rights, and force people to acknowledge that it is the criminal's fault not society.
Chris,
England
Should we not also be debating the 19% rise in forgery and fraud, the largest rise in any category in these statistics? It seems we are becoming a more dishonest as well as a more violent society.
Chris Cradock,
UK

The latest I have heard, is that the old police station will now become a wine bar
Rob Holman, England
|
A great example in the fight against crime is the closure of our local police station in Chislehurst.
Apparently, this was due to lack of funds. However, the police have insisted that the level of service and response times will remain the same. Rubbish! There has been a massive increase in graffiti, the off-licenses have been held up at gunpoint, the phone boxes are smashed every Friday night and so on. The latest I have heard, is that the old police station will now become a wine bar. This will, no doubt increase the amount of alcohol-related crime even more.
Rob Holman,
England
Thatcher's children are coming home to roost - don't let the next generation down in the same way.
Rob, England
The answer is John Birt. Anyone who commits a crime should be made to read the collected thoughts of the ex-BBC Director General without recourse to a dictionary or a thesaurus. Should keep the hooligans quiet for a while.
Mac,
Scotland
Make the breweries responsible for the actions of their clients. Why should they be allowed to push over-strength lagers and alcopops to idiots all night simply to close the doors behind them and count their profits while the rest of society suffers the consequences? Less pubs and bars run by twenty-year-old managers and more owner-landlords would help.
Colin,
UK

As a Special Constable I get to work alongside the regular officers on the street
Simon,
England
|
As a Special Constable I get to work alongside the regular officers on the street. I have found that the special departments such as Traffic and Public Order groups have very little work in comparison with those police officers who patrol "sections" or beats. There just seems to be so many police officers doing very little when the section officers have so much work to do!
Simon,
England
The key to the regeneration of this country and the reduction of crime is a return to stricter parental discipline. Parents MUST take their responsibilities more seriously - equally applicable to one or two parent families - this is the start of the chain.
The benefits are better behaviour at home and at school, leading to improved educational results, better chances of employment, hence less temptation to get into crime and vandalism.
Jenny F,
UK
Today we read of the horror in Sussex, crime figures going up, not enough police, ineffective Government action, and yet the British spend $35 million on an embassy in Berlin when the money would better used to fight crime.
It makes one so proud to have a British passport
Riick,
Cymru/ Wales/ Malaysia
There's little point providing more police officers unless they are given the legal powers to arrest and charge criminals, and the existing legal framework backs them up. What's the point of rounding up crooks if the courts slap their wrists and let them go again?
Pete Marsh,
UK

If there are pubs that cause problems, shut them down and make the landlord reapply for the licence
Dominic, UK
|
Zero tolerance is the solution. If there are pubs that cause problems, shut them down and make the landlord reapply for the licence. Criminals should be made to work hard to repay their debt to society. Any unsocial behaviour should not be tolerated - name and shame.
It is time for a major re-think of the criminal system and this should be done at the same time as a major re-think of the welfare system.
Dominic,
UK
Jack Straw says that these offenders have too much money and hence get drunk more often. If this is the case the answer is straightforward. Increase the cost of alcohol to a prohibitive price (as for petrol) to see if this will remove the drunken yobs from the street. It is all very well using slogans but unless New Labour get tough on the cause of this crime, i.e. alcohol and price it out of the market, then all the words are just so much hot air.
JG,
UK
I believe that crime is the result of poor education and social problems. In order to tackle this problem, we need to be aware of the background of violence. Fighting poverty, access to education and employment is the direction which should be taken. Violence is the expression of a social malaise.
Emma C.
France
We are told the police are under-resourced, yet certain forces have sufficient manpower to prosecute motorists for eating a Kit-Kat or drinking from a bottle of water.
Since the police are supposed to be the servants of the people, could we not have some say in the prioritisation of their work and funding? Of course convictions for violent crime require proof of guilt obtained through investigative policing, whilst tickets for motoring offences can be doled out from the comfort of their Lotus Esprit.
Dave Crack,
England
The answer is simple - achieving it is difficult. The answer to the current lawlessness and yobbish behaviour is to fundamentally re-moralise Britain. This means instilling respect, decency, discipline and responsibility in our youngsters. How to achieve it? An end to the tolerance of teenage pregnancy, marital breakdown and equal treatment for the unmarried. I am afraid you have to penalise the feckless and immoral and the traditional family is the key. Have any of our politicians got the guts to speak out on this?
Richard,
England

As history has taught us, prohibition is not the answer
Phil Jones,
England
|
The Government is quick to blame alcohol for all of society's ills. While I agree that excessive drinking does make some people violent and aggressive, it is not fair to punish those who enjoy social drinking and can handle their alcohol.
As history has taught us, prohibition is not the answer. If anything, the Government should rush through a late licensing bill that will let people leave pubs and clubs when they wish to. As it is, the most dangerous time to be out and about is just after 11pm when the pubs close. Not staggering closing times means thousands of intoxicated people converging on the streets waiting for busses, taxis and fast food. It's no wonder that I see fights breaking out every Friday and Saturday night.
Phil Jones,
England
Personally, I'm not an advocate of "zero tolerance" policies, they have no place in a civilised society.
Just because some criminals behave in an uncivilised manner does not excuse the state, authorities or the rest of us from behaving responsibly.
I do believe that violence against a person, or threatening violence with a weapon should be specifically targeted for stiffer sentences. It's these crimes that intimidate people and "scare them off the streets". Behaving boisterously and drunkenly in public IS acceptable to most of us, but violence and muggings are not. That should be the "message" and the policy.
Johnny,
Ireland
I think it's disgusting that young people do this kind of thing. If they brought back conscription these kids wouldn't be beating up old people. My friend across the road was attacked and they took a bag of carrots she had just bought because she didn't have any money. When I was young there wasn't crime like this, you could walk into people's houses to say hello and they didn't mind. People pulled together during the War. If they brought back conscription it would give these kids some backbone and training in firearms use. It isn't safe to walk the streets anymore.
Wally Hibbs,
England
Crime is a result of upbringing and social climate not a "criminal mindset". To prevent crime, inequality has to be reduced and the law reformed so that it reflects the opinion of the majority and not of the elite.
John,
England

Speak to any doctor or nurse, any judge or magistrate and they will all tell you that alcohol is the cause of the problem
AK, England
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Speak to any doctor or nurse, any judge or magistrate and they will all tell you that alcohol is the cause of the problem. Is prohibition too high a price to pay? Is it really that far-fetched? Is it too high a price to pay in order to spare countless battered families and broken homes?
I see this as the single most important electoral issue. For the first time the issue of crime will be the deciding factor for my next vote.
AK,
England
Ask the Swiss! Their country seems a lot safer and friendlier than anywhere else I have encountered so far. If it is due to better policing, education, legislation etc, then maybe we stand a chance.
Peter,
Switzerland (from UK)
This morning I came across colleagues discussing speed cameras and how to evade them. When I suggested sticking to the limit they just laughed.
Their attitude was simple. Parliament passes stupid laws that treat people as potential criminals and then tries to enforce them using police-state methods. If "they" don't respect us, why should we respect "them"? And, frankly, I couldn't argue against that - because it's true.
Alex Swanson,
UK
More policemen on the beat - that would be a good start.
What we really need, though, is a justice system that is geared towards dealing with criminals, not pandering to their "needs" and their
"rights".
I, for one, am fed up with the persistent bleating of those who style themselves as defenders of civil liberties. Criminals should have ALL their liberties revoked.
What sort of country, what sort of government, allows a system to develop where the criminal has more rights than their victim?
Martin,
UK

You also need to tackle the root causes of most crime - poverty, urban depravation and social exclusion
Neil,
UK
|
The easy answer is more police and stricter laws/ harsher punishments. However, you also need to tackle the root causes of most crime - poverty, urban depravation and social exclusion or those millions spent on more police will be wasted.
Neil,
UK
As a student of Law and Criminology, I find it increasingly worrying that little is being done to reform a system, that still allows the worst kind of criminals to be sent away to a comfy cell with a TV and qualify for a degree. These kind of people deserve to be put in a dark place and forgotten about. They are not normal people, and will never change. It is about time that our criminal justice system recognised this!
Julie Marsh,
England
I've heard many stories of prisons offering better facilities than a holiday camp. One person I know was sent to Lewis jail for a couple of years. He likes it so much that when he gets out he re-offends just so that he can go back inside, meet his friends and watch Sky TV. What sort of deterrent is this? Prisoners should be made to work in harsh conditions and repay their debt to society.
Ian,
UK
I was on holiday 3 years ago in London with two friends. We had stopped for a bite to eat and, as it was a nice day, we decided to sit outside. After a while, both my friends went inside - one to get some beer, the other to use the toilet. While they were away, 2 men approached me and tried to rob my bag. One of them grabbed the bag and ran off but I managed to keep hold of the second man. While I was holding him, he was trying and sometimes succeeding in hitting and kicking me. A minute or so later, one of my friends came out, saw what was happening, and jumped on the man as well. When my third friend came out, we started to beat the thief. After 5-10 minutes, the police arrived and arrested us for assault. This man had attacked and robbed me yet I was to blame for lashing out at him!
John Adams,
America

Free the police from paperwork and get these scumbags off the street
John B, UK
|
We can start by dropping this liberal garbage about "rights" for the criminal. If you commit a crime you pay the price which should match the crime. If you vandalise property you pay for repairs. If you daub graffiti you clean it off again. If you repeat-offend you go to jail. Free the police from paperwork and get these scumbags off the street. Simple.
John B,
UK
Getting more police officers onto the street acts as a visual deterrent. However, what we really need is a legal system that acts as a deterrent when police are not in sight. A system that either fails to punish the right people, or punishes people with lenient sentences is not going to act as a deterrent at all.
As for excessive drinking being to blame, does this mean we will be seeing a heavy increase in the tax on alcohol in much the same way as motorists have seen a high rise in tax on fuel?
Martyn,
England

Zero tolerance is the only way to get the message across
Alex S, UK
|
Bring back some arcane punishments. Death penalty for first degree murder. A life prison sentence should mean exactly that. Stop letting violent, dangerous criminals out on the streets to re-offend, and we'll be half way there.
The liberal approach to law and order does not work. Thugs and criminals have rejected the laws by which society lives and functions, therefore society should reject them. Zero tolerance is the only way to get the message across.
Alex S,
UK
I think there is a probably a community way to do this - people have to get out more. At night town centres can be become unstable places because law-abiding people stay at home. This in the worst case can cause riots, as happened recently in Aylesbury when a taxi strike (due to an assault on two taxi drivers) left drinkers stranded and angry.
Guy Robinson,
UK
We have to be careful how we interpret statistics. This is because more crime is being reported than in the past, including domestic violence. For example the Hertfordshire Constabulary have successfully prosecuted men recently, using their own police photographic evidence of the battered victim. This never happened in the past and the police were reluctant to prosecute in domestic situations.
More street crime is also being recorded as a result of CCTV. So we must question whether this is a real increase or a correction of earlier under reporting. I think the use of private security firms in city centres could possibly supplement scarce police resources in tackling crime.
John,
UK

We need greater police powers, more respect for the law and the police force
Brendan Fernandes, UK
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It's easy to blame drugs and alcohol for crime, whereas the real problem is that it is simply too easy to commit crime and get away with it. We need greater police powers, more respect for the law and the police force, and, most obviously, more policemen on the streets.
Brendan Fernandes,
UK
If the police weren't so busy harassing motorists for trivial speeding offences they might have time to investigate real crimes.
Neil Pearce,
UK
There seems to be more laws on the side of the criminal than the victim these days. The government should change this - the criminal should have no rights. There is little or no deterrence. People who commit crimes know they will probably get away lightly with it, while the victim will be left to suffer.
Gary Holcombe,
UK
New Labour have
abandoned their traditional
heartlands and hammered the
middle classes only to climb
into bed with the criminal
fraternity.
Dr. S,
UK
We need to be much stricter when it comes to sentencing. Too many times criminals are let off with nothing more than a slap on the wrist.
Neil Pearce,
UK

CCTV is a device to help the police not be the police
Mark S,
UK
|
Yes we do need more bobbies on the beat especially in town and city centres and more rural areas. All I seem to see now is the police driving around in cars which is not effective policing and nor masses of time taken to catch speeding motorists. CCTV is a device to help the police not be the police.
Mark S,
UK
Get rid of the Labour government. Ensure the victim is treated properly and once someone has committed a crime then they lose their rights.
Graham,
England