Tories bust the record on crime

Conservative policy has failed to tackle Britain's chronic youth crime problem, according to research by Luton University.

Researchers from the university centre for crime study say that the number of crimes recorded by police in 1981 stood at about 3.5 million in both Britain and France. But by 1991 Britain's level had soared to six million while France's dropped to three million.

Centre director John Pitts, professor of socio-legal studies, looked at two housing estates, one in Poplar, London, and the other on the outskirts of Paris. Both had very high crime rates in the early 1980s and both had similar population profiles in terms of social and economic deprivation.

Professor Pitts found that successive French governments ploughed money into schools and long-term schemes dedicated to building community spirit from the grassroots. But Conservative governments in Britain limited education spending and paid for short-term projects that did little to foster effective cooperation.

He said: "The French initiative worked because they recognised that the radical economic changes affecting poor neighbourhoods throughout Europe in the 1980s, if left unaddressed, would force up the crime rate. The British Government since 1979 has chosen to ignore this possibility and has focused instead on questions of individual morality. Crime is a moral problem, but it is also a social problem responsive to social actions by governments."

The crime rate on the Parisian estate had fallen below the French national average by 1991. A neighbourhood council worked with other agencies, including the police, magistrates and the local mayor to forge an integrated approach to tackling problems.

Youths were employed by schools to prevent bullying and to escort vulnerable children home. The local mayor also met with the local young people once a month, representing their views at the national meeting of town mayors chaired by the French president.

The estate was declared an educational priority area and additional specialist teachers were provided along with more money for support services.

By contrast the Poplar estate suffered cuts in school and support services while older youths were left to drift because of the lack of long-term employment and training projects. Many gravitated towards petty crime and violence.

Professor Pitts said that Government policy to put more police officers on the beat will have a limited effect unless they are involved in a proper community network. He also warned that a harsher penal code would be expensive and do little solve the problem.

* The centre for the study of crime opens next week. It will offer MAs and BAs in applied social studies including options on youth crime, justice and crime prevention.