Murder & Inequality

Criminologist Richard Garside at Cif:

"Most behaviour currently defined as criminal remains unknown and unmeasured, making simple comparisons of economic trends and the official crime rate a dubious exercise. A stronger case can be made that what matters is levels of inequality within a society, rather than the aggregate level of national wealth."

But it is the distribution of homicide risk that is the most telling feature, as research by Professor Danny Dorling of the University of Sheffield illustrates. He found that the risk of homicide for those living in the richest neighbourhoods fell during the 1980s and 1990s. The risk of homicide for those living in the poorest neighbourhoods went up sixfold.

Placed alongside research by other scholars such as Professor Richard Wilkinson of the University of Nottingham, there is a compelling case to be made that unequal societies are more crime-ridden, violent and harmful."

And London is the home of inequality.

Comments

[Jim]

"And London is the home of inequality."

Which is another way of saying that it is home to both rich and poor. Would it be better if it was only one or the other? I say this as no fan of inequality by the way - I just think that in an unequal society I'd rather have the rich and the poor more mixed together in places like today's London than segregated into entirely separate areas.