More Crime Problems in UK: Surge in unsolved crimes

If people don't think that reporting the crime to the police is less and less likely to accomplish anything, this can result in reported crime falling farther below actual crime rates. This increase in reported crime could thus underestimate the true increase in crime. It is also a reason that crime rates will increase if criminals have less to worry about. Part of the increase in unsolved crimes is consistent with the increase in gang related crime in the UK. Overall, it raises additional questions about people in the UK being able to rely on law enforcement for protection.

MORE than 100,000 police crime reports were ditched before reaching court by Scotland's prosecutors last year, up a third on the previous 12 months and the strongest indication yet of the crisis gripping the nation's justice system.

Despite many thousands of hours of detective work, fiscals marked a total of 106,481 crime reports with "no proceedings" compared with 81,028 in 2003/2004. The abandoned cases ranged from 'petty' crimes such as vandalism to serious assault.

Prosecutors insist most cases were shelved on the grounds of insufficient evidence but critics say the massive increase proves the courts and prosecutors are under intolerable pressure. . . . .

Over the same period, the amount of crime reported to the Crown rose only marginally, from 321,000 to 323,000. This means the proportion of abandoned crime reports has increased in 12 months from a quarter to more than a third.

Thanks very much to John WIlliamson for sending me this link.