Conviction fiasco wrecks British crime drive

ALMOST half of the offenders caught by police are getting away without being punished by a court, according to an independent study which exposes as a sham Tony Blair’s pledge to be tough on crime. In the past year 624,000 of the 1.327m offences “brought to justice” were “non-convictions” — dealt with by cautions, summary fines or official warnings, to boost the clear-up rate.

The 75-page report, by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King’s College London, concludes there have been no “significant improvements” in law and order under Labour, and Britain remains “a high crime society”.

The report, published in association with The Sunday Times, assesses the boosting of spending on criminal justice by over a third in real terms over the past decade, to £22.7 billion this year.

It claims Britain spends proportionately more on criminal justice than any other western country but that “there has not been a significant step change” in outcome. It dismisses Labour’s manifesto claims that it has made Britain a safer place as “overstated and at times misleading”.

From 1998-99 to 2004-05 the police received a 21% real terms increase in funding, with even larger rises for the probation service (160%), the crown courts (116%) and the Crown Prosecution Service (44%).

Yet the report shows:

Court convictions as a proportion of offences “brought to justice” have fallen. The absolute number of convictions has also fallen.

Nearly half (47%) of the 1.327m offences “brought to justice” in 2006 were “non-convictions”.

Robberies have risen and murders are up by more than a third, from 600 in 1997 to 820 last year.

Street muggings and the proportion of prisoners reconvicted remain stubbornly high, showing Labour’s promises to curb them have all been missed.

Labour’s claim that crime as a whole has gone down is “highly misleading”. Official statistics, such as the British Crime Survey, exclude murder, rape, sexual assault, crimes involving children and other serious offences.

Crime was already falling fast when Labour came to power, making it easy for ministers to set a target — to cut crime by 15% — which seemed bold but was “based on existing trends continuing regardless of government action”.

The report concludes: “The extra money for relentless reform has not resulted in a significant improvement in outcomes, with crime remaining high and the proportion of crimes dealt with being extremely low.”

Report here



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