No, not “more severe”, just “less effective”:
Firearms offences also increased, up 4% in the whole of 2007 to 9,967… however, gun deaths fell to 49, seven fewer than in the previous 12 months.
What’s wrong with kids today? I’m fairly sure that even when I was 15, I could have achieved a better-than-0.5% hit-rate…
Seriously though, it’s nice to see that crime is falling, both according to police records and to the generally-more-reliable British Crime Survey. Shame the mongers won’t pay a blind bit of attention…
"I’m fairly sure that even when I was 15, I could have achieved a better-than-0.5% hit-rate"
not if your score on the dutch shooting is anything to go by
Oi, I got 4 head-shots with the pistol; I just sucked with the rifle…
With respect to the good news that crime is falling generally, the correct interpretation could well be that "prison works", i.e. rising numbers of prisoners = falling crime.
And yet I've still to see anyone in the MSM making this link.
It's far more likely, although I've not seen one yet, that we will see headlines like, "Crime falls so it's OK to start cutting back on prisons."
Or indeed that economic growth reduces crime, which is the commonly accepted link. There was a leaked Home Office internal document a couple of years ago that estimated 80% of crime reduction was due to economic growth (I wonder if this includes factors like DVD players dropping in price, which reduces incentives to burglary).
It’s far more likely, although I’ve not seen one yet, that we will see headlines like, “Crime falls so it’s OK to start cutting back on prisons.”
You surely don't mean that?