Phil Redmond: Causes of crime

Feb 1 2008 by Phil Redmond, Liverpool Daily Post

EXCHANGES. I’ve had a few more this week. One major, one minor. The minor one was through this very newspaper. Following my column on Evertonians last week, Tony Tighe, of the Everton Collection Charitable Trust, wrote in to point out that the David France Collection had been purchased last December and is being prepared for exhibition in the new Liverpool Museum.

As a Red, at least I was only a few weeks behind on the Blues history, but will be contacting Tony to happily take up his offer to discuss what we can do to celebrate EFC’s history.

A more major exchange was had with ITV over the recent Tonight programme relating to women being afraid to walk the streets featuring, of course our Capital of Culture.

The item ended with the voiceover saying "Whether it is crime itself or the fear of crime, the result is the same. Women are afraid . . ." This, of course, made a nice dramatic out, but was, in my opinion, wrong to link the two, verging on the irresponsible.

One factor, crime, is based on statistics; the other, fear, is based on perception. One is based on knowledge, one is based on ignorance. One, in the great sociological catch-all, is the fault of "the system": what leads people to crime? The other is the fault of second-hand reports through "the media": the reportage of crime leading to a false perception that it is more prevalent than it is.

Perhaps more to the point, though, was to ask exactly what was the point of the report itself? We all know there is a growing gun culture in areas of most of Britain’s inner cities.

We all know that people, not just women, are afraid to go out after dark in some areas.

However, statistically, most violence, with or without guns, is male on male, but at any time in history women have always "been afraid". Dickens wrote about it.

The point they should be highlighting is that inner-city areas across the UK have not suddenly become outlets for guns-r-us or drugs-2-go, but that is all part of the same continuum of post- industrial decline, deprivation and inevitable social exclusion experienced for several decades. A continuum that local communities are generally powerless to influence or respond effectively to by themselves.

And none of us can solve a 24/7 problem by going 7/24 – the length of the school day. Education cannot solve everything.

Of course, ITV’s response is, basically, that they only report what they see, but that amounts to nothing more than media gossip, which helps nobody. While fine for a quick bulletin, surely a planned feature should drill a bit deeper to unearth the real issues, not the symptoms? And, perhaps, what really needs to be done, rather than simply generate gossipy exchanges.