LETTER: Future fears
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.IAN JACK'S fin de sicle view ("How to survive the 21st century", Review, 9 April) is unduly pessimistic in two respects.
First, the statistics concerning crime, featured under the heading "Trends", give a misleading impression of change for the worse. Ninety-five per cent of Britons may think that it is unsafe to walk the streets at night, with 85 per cent believing it to have been safe 30 years ago. This is, however, the response generally found when middle-aged people are polled on this subject: it is because 30 years ago they were young, fit, single people unintimidated by groups of their own generation. The older you get the more likely you are to be nervous about groups of youths on the streets after dark.
It is misleading to state that "the average person's risk of becoming a victim of violent crime has trebled since 1979" when the chance itself is so remote. Even though there was a reported rise in violent crime last year, as there has been for 20 years, only about 5 per cent of crime was violent, and most of that was domestic or between drunk young men.
Gary Slapper
Law School
Staffordshire University
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments