By creating new crimes to count, the government has increased the total number of counted violent offences from 348,032 to 716,519. As property crime falls, the new inflated counts reorientate public concerns and policy towards a new crusade against interpersonal violence and drunken young men. Under the old regime, total crime has fallen by 7.1 percent. Under the new regime, it has risen by 5.9 percent. No surprise, then, that new policing powers, expanded budgets, sweeping partnerships, and, of course, a Labour second term are presented as necessary to hold back the tide.
Public fears are particularly susceptible to concern about violent crime.
Sexual offences are down - only by 0.4 percent, but this is the first fall in five years. Because the police have been told to lay off homosexual men. Gross indecency is down 38 percent, 'buggery' down 22 percent. But they are up 410 percent under the new rules. This does not mean that people are smoking dope either 410 percent more, or 10 or 20 percent less.