Tom Gash was an adviser to the Blair government on how to tackle crime. But having found that “political decisions were often based more on myths about crime than on facts”, in this book he sets out to disprove the 11 most commonly believed myths. He takes aim at rightwing claims that crime is a moral issue best dealt with by ever tougher sentencing, and leftwing beliefs that it is caused by poverty and inequality – if that’s so, then why have crime levels been steadily falling when inequality has been rising? In particular he attacks media reporting of crime for being “selective, partial and biased”, simplifying an issue that he shows to be very complex. Gash offers a supremely sane discussion of the causes and ways of prevention of crime, one that is richly researched but still very readable. From bobbies on the beat (they don’t reduce crime: beat officers can expect to stumble across a burglary once every eight years), to the idea that – as Michael Howard put it – “prison works” (it doesn’t), Gash’s important book may well change your attitude to criminality and the justice system.
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