FACT 36 Britain’s most prolific serial killer was Dr Harold Shipman, yet we are still uncertain how many people he actually killed

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents iii
3. Notes on the editors vii
4. Introduction 1
5. Part One. Historical context
6. FACT 1 The Crime Survey for England and Wales in 2017 states that there were 10.8 million incidents of crime in the previous year 11
7. FACT 2 Capital punishment in the UK was abolished in 1965, but the Death Penalty was a legally defined punishment until 1998 17
8. FACT 3 Homosexual male (gay) sex was only decriminalised in England some 50 years ago 21
9. FACT 4 The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) was set up 60 years before the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) 27
10. Part Two. Crime in Britain today
11. FACT 5 Vehicle crime in England and Wales has fallen by 80% since 1993 35
12. FACT 6 Businesses face higher rates of victimisation than households or individuals 40
13. FACT 7 From 2007 to 2017, there were around 2.3 million deliberate fires in the UK, resulting in over 25,000 injuries and over 900 deaths 44
14. FACT 8 Between 2016 and 2017, 80,393 hate crimes were committed in England and Wales 49
15. FACT 9 The cost of waste crime in the UK exceeded £1 billion for the first time in 2016 54
16. Part Three. International comparisons
17. FACT 10 There is a 0.9 per 100,000 people murder rate in the UK; in Lithuania, it is 5.9 per 100,000 61
18. FACT 11 The age of criminal responsibility in England and Wales is the lowest in Europe at just 10 years old 66
19. FACT 12 Between 2004 and 2017, 33 people were fatally shot by the police in England and Wales 70
20. Part Four. The police
21. FACT 13 There were 298,949 police stop-and-search incidents in England and Wales in 2016/17 – a rate of 5 per 1,000 people 77
22. FACT 14 The police and security services are keeping 3,000 people in the UK under surveillance for suspected terrorist activities 82
23. FACT 15 The Metropolitan Police Service examines approximately 40,000 digital forensics devices annually 86
24. FACT 16 Police officers comprise only 60% of the police workforce in England and Wales 91
25. FACT 17 An individual police officer will attend to approximately 150 non-crime-related issues per year 96
26. Part Five. Prison realities
27. FACT 18 Contrary to what people often think, a life sentence does last for life 103
28. FACT 19 The average yearly cost of keeping one person in prison in England and Wales is £35,182 109
29. FACT 20 In 2016, almost 289,605 extra days (or 793 years of imprisonment) were added to prisoners’ sentences 114
30. FACT 21 3.5% of those serving a sentence in the criminal justice system in England and Wales are former military personnel 118
31. FACT 22 Prisons are now the largest provider of residential care for older men in England and Wales 122
32. FACT 23 The female prison population accounts for just under 5% of the total prison population 126
33. Part Six. Criminal justice
34. FACT 24 Around 84% of all offenders who appear before the courts are convicted 133
35. FACT 25 Judges in courts in England and Wales do not use gavels 139
36. FACT 26 The Home Office claims that around 100,000 people are responsible for half of all recorded crime 142
37. FACT 27 In 2017 there were 260,000 offenders in the community under statutory supervision by the criminal justice system in England and Wales 147
38. FACT 28 It’s (nearly) impossible to go to jail for not paying your debts, but mass indebtedness nonetheless remains an entry point to many crime problems 151
39. Part Seven. Black market Britain
40. FACT 29 The number of suspected victims of trafficking and slavery in the UK increased by 35% in 2017; of the 5,145 suspected victims from 116 countries, 2,118 were minors 161
41. FACT 30 The fake medicine trade has now overtaken marijuana as the world’s largest market for criminal traffickers 167
42. FACT 31 Tackling drug trafficking costs the UK government £10.7 billion annually 172
43. FACT 32 Alcohol-related crime in the UK is estimated to cost the economy between £8 billion and £13 billion per year 178
44. FACT 33 For every £1 spent on drug-related treatment, there is a £2.50 benefit to society 182
45. FACT 34 If you get caught selling counterfeits, you can face a maximum of 10 years’ imprisonment and an unlimited fine 187
46. Part Eight. Violent Britain
47. FACT 35 There is no comprehensive national figure for the number of gangs or the number of young people involved or associated with gangs 193
48. FACT 36 Britain’s most prolific serial killer was Dr Harold Shipman, yet we are still uncertain how many people he actually killed 198
49. FACT 37 The average cost of a contract murder in the UK is just £15,180 203
50. FACT 38 Sex workers in the UK are 12 times more likely to be murdered than the general population 208
51. FACT 39 Not all violence is criminal 212
52. FACT 40 You cannot consent to be harmed in sex, but you can in the boxing ring 216
53. Part Nine. Victims
54. FACT 41 64% of homicide victims are male 223
55. FACT 42 It is claimed that around one in 20 children in Britain are sexually abused 228
56. FACT 43 More than three-quarters of people sleeping rough have been victims of crime or antisocial behaviour in the past year 232
57. FACT 44 In 2015/16, the NHS treated over 9,000 cases of female genital mutilation 237
58. FACT 45 Two women are killed each week by a current or former partner in England and Wales 241
59. FACT 46 Almost 50% of stalkers present themselves at their victim’s workplace 246
60. Part Ten. Crime and technology
61. FACT 47 Around one in six of all estimated crimes in England and Wales in the year to September 2016 were fraud committed online, according to the Office for National Statistics 255
62. FACT 48 The number of alleged crimes involving social media such as Facebook and Twitter have increased nearly eightfold between 2008 and 2012 259
63. FACT 49 There is estimated to be one CCTV camera for every 14 people in the UK 264
64. FACT 50 There are currently some 11,000 offenders subject to ‘tagging’ on any day in England and Wales, and the UK is one of Europe’s keenest adopters of electronic monitoring of offenders 268
65. References 273
66. Index 321