Burglaries
The Economist has an interesting article about the decline of the English (and Welsh and Scottish and perhaps Northern Irish burglary).Basically the number of burglaries has fallen from about 1.8m a year in 1993 to 1.0m a year last year. The reasons for this appear to be:
1. The value of stealable items has fallen, i.e. hi-fis, DVDs, videos, computers. Only large TVs have increased in value and they are too large to burgle. Credit cards, cheques, cash and mobile phones are now the most common items, but these are either easy to cancel or just aren't in as many houses, or as easy to find, as TVs, videos etc.
2. Better policing. Infiltration of professional gangs have meant most burglaries are now amateur affairs, often by drug-addicts. These people aren't very good at burglary, to put it mildly.
posted by Matthew @ 5/28/2004 07:25:00 AM
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