Wednesday 21 December 2011
Were the rioters 'career criminals'?
Excellent post over at fullfact.org. I particularly like the comparison of mean and median.....
Thursday 15 December 2011
Compare and contrast
Interesting to compare the police and government responses the the Grauniad's 'reading the riots' study/conference. Not for the first time, I'm struck by the reasonable tone struck by the MET who, apparently, recognise they must do things differently in the future, and acknowledge that there is a significant problem around stop and search. Whether this translate into real change remains to be seen, of course.
Theresa May, however, seemingly can't climb out of her ideological hole, insisting that any attempt to uncover reasons for the riots amounts to 'excuses'. This know-nothing attitude totally bemuses me. Should we never seek to try and understand things that we can condemn (or, alternatively, only seek to understand things of which we approve)? Gangs get another airing, too, despite all the evidence to suggest that this really wasn't about gangs at all. At least she, too, seems to reluctantly agree we might have a problem with stop and search, and has launched a review.
Ed Milliband, by contrast, said much to agree with (including criticising the government's "simplistic" response to the riots). Let's hope his approach signifies a genuine shift in Labour thinking and a move away from crime policies that have all too often amounted to attempts at outflanking the Tories from the right.
Theresa May, however, seemingly can't climb out of her ideological hole, insisting that any attempt to uncover reasons for the riots amounts to 'excuses'. This know-nothing attitude totally bemuses me. Should we never seek to try and understand things that we can condemn (or, alternatively, only seek to understand things of which we approve)? Gangs get another airing, too, despite all the evidence to suggest that this really wasn't about gangs at all. At least she, too, seems to reluctantly agree we might have a problem with stop and search, and has launched a review.
Ed Milliband, by contrast, said much to agree with (including criticising the government's "simplistic" response to the riots). Let's hope his approach signifies a genuine shift in Labour thinking and a move away from crime policies that have all too often amounted to attempts at outflanking the Tories from the right.
Tuesday 13 December 2011
Public trust and police legitimacy across Europe
Article on Comment is Free here. This is (loosely) based on the first findings from the 5th European Social Survey (ESS), which contained questions on trust in the police, legitimacy, compliance and consent.
There was also a linked news story here - which plays rather fast and loose with the issue of country rankings. I would say the UK police come at the top of mid-table across the 20 countries included in the first release of the ESS, rather than being in any way seen as 'untrustworthy'. Although I suppose most of the countries we would want to be compared with - Germany, the Scandinavians - do rank higher. Public trust in the police is certainly higher in the UK than in Bulgaria, Hungry and Russia, but I guess that's not a particularly strong recommendation.
There was also a linked news story here - which plays rather fast and loose with the issue of country rankings. I would say the UK police come at the top of mid-table across the 20 countries included in the first release of the ESS, rather than being in any way seen as 'untrustworthy'. Although I suppose most of the countries we would want to be compared with - Germany, the Scandinavians - do rank higher. Public trust in the police is certainly higher in the UK than in Bulgaria, Hungry and Russia, but I guess that's not a particularly strong recommendation.
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