Crime figures pose difficult questions for our justice system

ONE of the unintended consequences of the process of devolution has been to allow a more scientific comparison of the impact of divergent policies pursued by the politicians in control of the different administrations established across the United Kingdom.

In the last few years we have had studies that looked at health and education which, in some respects at least, showed that Scotland has not been keeping up with the progress that has been made in these crucial areas of public policy in other parts of the UK.

The latest such study, published yesterday by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), looks at crime and raises some difficult questions about the performance of the Scottish criminal justice system.

According to the IPPR, England, Wales and Northern Ireland have followed the international trend during the last decade of falling crime rates, especially in relation to the 'volume crimes' like burglary, minor violent offences and car crime.

Scotland, the researchers say, records increases in vandalism, some forms of household theft and assaults – and overall the crime rate north of the Border, measured by victim surveys, stayed fairly constant.

Although Scotland appears to be performing badly compared to her southern neighbour, the report also points out that overall crime this side of Hadrian's Wall is lower, though the fall in England means that the gap between the two countries is closing.

However, the report also shows that Scotland continues to spend less on policing than the other parts of the UK, some 44 per head of population less than the rest of the country in 2006.

So, why the differences and what lessons can be learned? The authors come to no final conclusion but speculate that the rate of crime in Scotland may not have fallen over the past decade because the country continues to be plagued by alcohol-related offending, including vandalism and assault.

There can be little doubt that this factor is of immense relevance in the debate over criminal justice polices but the unanswered question is whether there would be a reduction in such crimes were there to be a further increase in police funding, beyond the sum promised for 1,000 extra officers on the beat.

If the central problem is alcohol it is doubtful whether further increases in spending on officers will help. As this newspaper has argued on many occasions, what is needed is a fundamental change in Scotland's relationship with alcohol, something that will not be achieved by the blunt instrument of minimum pricing.

In these straightened financial times, it is hard to see where any extra money for law and order will come from but, if there is extra spending, it might be more wisely directed to the SNP Government's efforts to keep people out of prison and enforce meaningful community service punishments for minor offences, which most academic studies show is a more effective way of preventing recidivism than imprisonment.