Incivility key to crime, says Straw

The level of muggings and burglaries in a neighbourhood is directly linked to the amount of graffiti and litter, the Home Secretary Jack Straw said yesterday.

Mr Straw said disorder and "incivility" in a locality were more important pointers to the incidence of street crime than whether or not it was an inner-city area.

Addressing a conference in Leicester on good policing practice, he said that the evidence of the British Crime Survey powerfully reinforced the Government's case for a "zero tolerance" approach to petty street crime.

The figures showed that the chances of being a victim of violent crime were four times greater in a disorderly neighbourhood than an orderly one. "Incivility, not inner-city location, is the key to high crime," he said.