Britain Becomes West's Crime Capital: UN Research

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, July 15, 2002

Britain Becomes West's Crime Capital: UN Research

England and Wales now top the Western world's crime league, the British daily Independent reported on Sunday citing a United Nations research.

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England and Wales now top the Western world's crime league, the British daily Independent reported on Sunday citing a United Nations research.

A study by the UN Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute revealed that people in England and Wales experience more crimes per head than people in 17 other developed countries surveyed, the newspaper said.

Researchers found that nearly 55 crimes are committed per 100 people in England and Wales compared with an average of 35 per cent in other industrialized countries.

England and Wales also have the worst record for "very serious"offenses, registering 18 such crimes for every 100 inhabitants, followed by Australia with 16.

"Contact crime", defined as robbery, sexual assault and assaultwith force, was second highest in England and Wales - 3.6 per centof those surveyed, comparing with 1.9 per cent in the US.

The UN study analyzed Home Office crime statistics for England and Wales and conducted telephone interviews with crime victims inthe 17 countries surveyed, including the United States, Japan, France and Spain,

News of the survey comes days after the Government published its long-awaited national crime figures, which showed the first increase in burglaries and thefts for 10 years.

The findings were expected to cause further embarrassment to British Prime Minister Tony Blair who has pledged to have street crime under control by September.

This week, the Home Office will publish its White Paper outlining radical reform of the criminal justice system, in part to curb spiraling street crime and to punish more offenders. Government sources confirmed that the reforms will also include empowering judges to tell rape-trial jurors about a defendant's previous convictions.

A record 108,178 street robberies last year prompted the Metropolitan Police Federation to demand an extra 12,000 officers for London alone. The US, by contrast, has managed to reduce its crime rates, despite its reputation for street robberies and shootings.

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