Why my burglar isn’t to blame
But I’m afraid I didn’t – apart from having a basic alarm system installed.
My mild indifference arises partly out of character – I’m not that way inclined. I try and live without fear or prejudice – I try not to be affected by reports of how dangerous the place is.
It’s mainly because I feel that the area is my home – it’s where I went to school.
My own decision not to leave is based on politics. I think there’s an over-sensational reaction to inner city crime.
Yes, it’s a problem – but I don’t believe it’s endemic nor do I believe it’s quite as bad as the media sometime portrays it.
I try and resist cultural suspicion, fear-mongering, social anxiety and paranoia.
I try not to resort to difference and differentiation among people.
Instead, I try and focus on unity and collectivism – aspects that bind us as human beings.
But it’s also because I don’t believe we should blame the people – who opt for petty crime – entirely.
For instance, before the riots of 2011, I felt there was a lot of cultural poverty and economic deprivation in many of our inner city areas.
There was a stench of inequality and the appearance of disparity between the rich and poor, between the ruling classes and the working classes – the minority groups and the oppressed.
It seems to me that the elite, including our politicians, have abandoned all sense of communal responsibility and their obligation to the people.
They have all given into convenient soundbites and blatant lies. They’ve substituted traditional values of respect, philanthropy and decency for money, power, celebrity and self-interest.
You just cannot justify the extent and level of hardship the country is experiencing by arguing stridently that the country has come out of a recession and all is well.
Language cannot always determine reality and reshape the way we feel about the world.
Today, in a post-Brexit world that prides Trump and anti-European sentiments, I believe there’s a growing sense of intolerance, where the great and the good conveniently scapegoat the unemployed, Muslims, the homeless, people on benefits, the foreigners... to them they’re the scourge of our society.
We’re told that that’s just the way the world is – disparity is a norm. We can fine or imprison working class people looting shops and taking pampers nappies or rice but we can’t hold bankers accountable – people who have lost the country trillions of pounds.
At work in lectures and seminars, I discuss with my students the importance of fairness and justice, of equality and diversity.
I know that the world is becoming dangerously divisive. Working class people from different backgrounds are being set upon.
I am supposed to blame the burglars who have broken into my house – and not the conditions that have propelled them to commit such petty crime.
Look at history and you will see that crime levels are high when the economy is staggering, when there are fewer jobs.
It’s always economic instability and volatility that give rise to desperate acts.
The government and the rightwing media wants us to blame the have-nots and people trying to survive on poverty or the breadline. I’m not convinced of this rhetoric. I think the government – irrespective of which party it is on June 8 – needs to provide people with worthwhile jobs.
They need to give them a sense of purpose and a decent living wage.
The workers need to feel there’s job security.
And the government need to help them to be a part of the system and not treat them as a social disease of their own making.
It is only then that we might see a real reduction in petty crime like burglary and theft.
Dr Roshan Doug, University of Birmingham
It’s always economic instability and volatility that give rise to desperate acts