Not recorded

Former gang member

criminals ending up on in their third-strike in the US but more of those that do have committed a more violent offence. They still get the same 25 years to life anyway. They had nothing to lose in the over the top, indiscriminate severe punishment common in US three-strikes regimes.

Criminals are calculating in more ways than this. Burglary and theft rates respond strongly to rises and falls in the price of petrol, scrap metal and jewellery. Thieves also quickly respond to the spread of antitheft devices to cars and mobile phones. Indeed, after the London riots, the only crimes that went up were offences other than riot type crimes such as robbery, assault, burglary and public disorder. Criminals plied their trade elsewhere in safer pastures. Arthur Daley would be proud.

Some say inequality and poverty are major drivers of crime. But they never mention the halving of murder rates in America since 1990 and the big fall in crime in general in the US despite its reputation as the home of the greediest top 1 per cent and no universal health insurance.

While crime plummeted in the US, crimes apart from homicide grew in Europe. So much so that burglary and robbery rates are much higher in many Western European welfare states than in the mean old USA.

One-third of prisoners are gang members. Nearly all the recent increase in prison numbers are more gang members getting their comeuppance. Those wanting to reduce prison numbers are unlikely to campaign on the slogan “too many gang members are in prison”.

Over twice as many gang members are in prison than in 2010. This welcome development is driving the increase in prison numbers.

Jim Rose