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The gold-standard "national statistics" status has been withdrawn from police recorded crime figures following repeated allegations that some of the quarterly published figures have been subject to "a degree of fiddling".

The UK Statistics Authority said it had taken the decision as a result of "accumulating evidence" that the underlying data on crimes recorded by the police may be unreliable.

It follows high-profile concerns over the integrity of the police crime figures raised by the Commons home affairs and public administration select committees. Her Majesty's chief inspector of constabulary, Tom Winsor, who is to report later this year on the issue, has said he expects to find "a degree of fiddling, some of it owing to dishonesty" among the 43 police forces in England and Wales. Winsor, however, has ruled out "institutional corruption" behind the inaccurate recording of crime by the police.

The police recorded crime figures, which date back to the 19th century, are one of the two major measures of crime in England and Wales. The second yardstick, the crime survey for England and Wales, which dates back to 1981, is unaffected by the allegations and has consistently showed a fall in crime since 1995.

The Statistics Authority said the removal of the designation of national statistics would remain until the Office for National Statistics (ONS), working with the Home Office, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and others, was able to demonstrate that the quality of the underlying crime data was sufficient to meet the needs of users.

The allegations have included claims that the Metropolitan police have understated sexual offences by as much as 25%. MPs have heard allegations that fiddling techniques have included downgrading offences to less serious crimes or persuading victims not to make a complaint, while in some cases crimes were only recorded if they were solved. Other incidents were kept completely off the books if an offender could not be traced, they have been told.

Glen Watson, the ONS director general, said: "ONS welcomes this very important UK Statistics Authority report. We look forward to working closely with the Home Office and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary to respond to all of its recommendations.

"We have already highlighted our concerns about the quality of crime recording by the police, and the variations in trends between recorded crime and our own crime survey for England and Wales. I am pleased this has been recognised by the authority."
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Police crime figures lose official status over claims of fiddling

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The gold-standard "national statistics" status has been withdrawn from police recorded crime figures following repeated allegations that some of the quarterly published figures have been subject to "a degree of fiddling". The UK Statistics Authority said it had taken the decision as a result of "accumulating evidence" that the underlying data on crimes recorded by the police may be unreliable.

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Over the last two decades, organised crime has dramatically increased its share of the world economy to as much as 20 percent.
Misha Glenny has spent the last three years investigating criminal networks in our newly globalised world.

In this four-part series for the World Service - How Crime Took On the World - he charts the explosion and growth of international crime.

Drug trafficking is the most lucrative illicit business in the world. In Programme One, Misha begins his journey in Canada, where the wholesale production of marijuana or BC Bud as it is known - is posing a profound challenge to the whole idea of the US-led 'War on Drugs'.

In British Colombia alone, this illegal industry employs nearly twice as many people as the traditional sectors of logging, mining, oil and gas. A conservative estimate puts the number of residential properties in the province used as full-time growing operations for marijuana at some 20,000.

After cultivating contacts over many months, Misha meets members of marijuana crime syndicates in a small, rural community in British Colombia. These are people who make colossal profits smuggling hundreds of kilos of marijuana into the United States every year, where marijuana is sold for twice as much as it is in Canada.

This is a business with a high degree of serious scientific input not only must 'Steve', a marijuana exporter, neutralise the odour of the drug, he must also ensure a uniformity of density in the load travelling south so that US Customs x-ray machines do not pick up the 200lbs of cannabis stuffed into a hollowed out log.

While the activities of 'Steve' and his team are clearly against the law, there is an ambivalence to the marijuana trade in liberal, west coast Vancouver. For years Canadians have debated legalising marijuana.

It is a discussion that clearly irritates Canada's more powerful southern neighbour, the United States, where most politicians of whatever hue articulate a similar mantra on the 'War on Drugs'. But in Albany, New York, Misha meets District Attorney David Soares who is daring to challenge the mantra, and campaigning to change New York State's draconian drug laws.
First broadcast on April 28 2008

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Over the last two decades, organised crime has dramatically increased its share of the world economy to as much as 20 percent. Misha Glenny has spent the last three years investigating criminal networks in our newly globalised world.

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Crime prevention: Turning off lights doesn't increase crime

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Crime prevention: Turning off lights doesn't increase crime

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Turning street lights off late at night to save money does not seem to trigger an increase in either traffic accidents or crime according to a survey of local councils in England and Wales where such cuts have been made.

Data gathered from 62 out of 174 local authorities on road casualties and on crimes that may have benefited from streets being in the dark has failed to find a link with reductions in street lighting, scientists said.

The researchers suggest that the evidence could be used to support further cuts in street lighting, either by dimming the lights, replacing them with energy-efficient lamps or turning them off completely - providing any potential risks are "carefully considered".

"The simple conclusion from our study is that we didn't find any evidence for an increase in road casualties or crime in the 25,000km of roads we looked at," said Phil Edwards of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the lead investigator of the study.

"An estimated £300m is spent every year on street lights in the UK. At a time when local authorities need to make spending cuts, our findings show that by carefully assessing risks, street lighting can be reduced without an increase in car crashes or crime," Dr Edwards said.

"It doesn't mean we can just turn street lights off at midnight all over the country because some roads are more risky than others, but risk assessments are already made before the lighting is changed," he said.

Research by the Labour Party last year found that much of Britain was being "plunged into darkness" after midnight due to the soaring number of street lights that have been turned off in order to save local councils money. Out of 141 councils in England, a total of 106 were either switching off or dimming some lights, Labour claimed.

The latest study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, surveyed crime and road-accident statistics in the 62 local authorities that replied to requests for information. The scientists focussed on crimes that are more likely to occur at night, such as burglary, vehicle theft, robbery, violence and sexual assault.

Over a 14-year period, during which time many councils had changed their policy on leaving street lighting on all night, the researchers failed to find any increase in road accidents or crime that could be put down to a change in lighting, such as dimming, converting orange lighting to energy-efficient white LED lighting, or turning them off completely after a certain hour.

The researchers acknowledge that the findings may have been biased in favour of the one third of councils that replied to the survey, but they believe that the overall conclusions are still robust enough to contribute to policy-making decisions.

"It's evidence that other local authorities who are considering reducing street lighting may want to take. They don't need to be necessarily fearful that it will cause harm - although some people do fear walking in the dark at night," Dr Edwards said.

Kevin McConway, professor of applied statistics at the Open University, who was not involved in the study, cautioned about over-interpreting the findings as the study cannot be entirely confident of ruling out harmful effects.

"Overall we're reassured by this study that the lighting changes so far weren't disastrously bad in their effects on road safety and crime. But because it's an observational study, we can't be sure why that is. The implications for future policy really aren't clear," Professor McConway said.

"The data don't allow much to be said about exactly how to consider the risks, or about how much scope there is for further safe reductions beyond those already made. It's not a blank cheque for further turn-offs and dimmings," he said.

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Why your local street lights might soon be getting turned off at night

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Turning street lights off late at night to save money does not seem to trigger an increase in either traffic accidents or crime according to a survey of local councils in England and Wales where such cuts have been made.

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Millions of men, women and children around the world are currently victims of human trafficking - bought and sold as commodities into prostitution and forced labour.

This trade in people criss-crosses the globe - and it is a lucrative business. The International Labour Office estimates that forced labour generates $150bn (£96bn) in illegal profits every year. Two thirds ($99bn; £63bn) comes from sexual exploitation.

But who are the people behind the numbers?

Kemi and Bilkisu, from Nigeria, Jane from the UK and Gabby from the US describe how they fell prey to traffickers.

Kemi's story, Nigeria

Thousands of women and girls from West Africa are bought and sold every year - most end up in Europe. The UN's Office on Drugs and Crime estimates West African trafficking victims, many of whom originate in Nigeria, make up about 10% of those forced into sex work in Western Europe.

Benin City, in Nigeria's south, is a key player - with networks and infrastructure built around the trade in people.

There, traffickers scout for girls wanting to travel, enticing them with promises of work and education. The victims are offered false papers and told they will need to pay off the cost of their transit when they reach their destination country.

Once recruited, the girls are often forced to take part in rituals to ensure their compliance.

One female former trafficker in Benin City describes how traffickers take girls' clothes as well as hair from their head, armpit and pubic area and hand them over to a traditional preacher in a ceremony, as a pledge that they will pay back their debts.

"With all those things collected from them, they have this fear that anything can happen," she says.

One of those who fell victim to the lies of the traffickers is Kemi. She was promised a new life in Italy - one that would allow her to provide for her family.

"They said, 'We want to change your life. We just want you to be happy'," she tells the BBC.

On her arrival in Italy, Kemi, a Catholic, soon learnt that the reality of her new life was far from what was promised.

She [the trafficker] is sending her children to the best schools with the money that I earned with my body
Kemi, Nigerian trafficking victim

She was told she would be expected to work as a prostitute. Although she initially refused, after being denied food and having her phone taken from her as punishment, she began to do as she was told.

"In the end, I worked for three years and three months," she says.

Over that time, Kemi paid a total of €27,000 ($30,000; £19,000) to her traffickers - an amount they were still not satisfied with.

She eventually found the strength to leave their clutches and escaped to stay with friends. However, she was deported by Italian authorities back to Nigeria some time later.

Without anything to show for her time spent abroad, Kemi decided not to return to her family.

"I was ashamed to go back home," she says tearfully. "I was ashamed to go back with nothing."

Now, traumatised by her experiences, she feels nothing but anger towards her traffickers.

"They are wicked," she says. "The woman that sent me has two girls. She is sending them to the best schools with the money that I earned with my body."

Bilkisu and Jane's story, UK

Hundreds of those trafficked from Nigeria end up in the UK, where they often face similar sexual exploitation or a life of forced domestic servitude.

Some 244 of the 2,340 potential victims referred to UK authorities in 2014 were from Nigeria, according to the National Crime Agency, a 31% increase on the previous year. The only country with a higher number of potential victims was Albania.

Bilkisu is one of those sent from Nigeria to the UK under false pretences. From the age of 15 she was kept as a slave - working long hours for no pay for almost 10 years.

Promised a place to stay with her uncle and the chance to continue her education, as well as provide her family with extra income, she left her homeland hoping for a better life.

However, once she reached the UK, she found herself being forced to do housework and childcare for her uncle's family. She began her chores at 05:00 and didn't finish until 21:00.

"Get the children ready for school, shower them, give them breakfast, iron the clothes," she says when describing her daily routine. "And also my auntie and my uncle, I had to get their clothes ready as well, as they needed to go to work."

During the day, Bilkisu cleaned the three-bedroom flat from top to bottom. If her aunt was not satisfied with the work done, she would be beaten.

"I was lonely... You know when you're inside a hole and there is no light - it is black. Everywhere was black. I was like that."

That damage is still there and, I don't know, it's going to be there forever and ever
Bilkisu, Nigerian trafficking victim

In the nine years Bilkisu worked for her uncle and his family, she didn't have a single day off and never received any pay.

It was only when she reached her 20s that she began a series of desperate attempts to get help. She eventually escaped with the help of the pastor at her local church.

But, having been robbed of a childhood, she still finds it difficult to socialise.

"I don't know how to make friends anymore," she explains. "That damage is still there and, I don't know, it's going to be there forever and ever."

'Passed around UK'

Unlike Bilkisu, many child victims of trafficking in the UK are actually bought and sold within the country. The UK government believes there are currently 13,000 children being exploited in this way.

Jane was just 13 when she was groomed and then abused, before being trafficked across the UK by groups of men for sex.

It began while she was at school. A man in his 70s, who knew she had an unstable family life, began to offer her presents and lifts.

He was soon asking for repayment in sexual acts and, slowly, over time, he began passing Jane around other Asian men.

At first, the men would drive her around, offer her drugs and take inappropriate pictures of her, she says. But the abuse soon escalated.

"Within a few weeks the older male would lock the door with the men inside and they wanted sex. And they took videos, they took pictures, they'd given me things [drugs] to take."

Soon, Jane was being swapped between different groups of men across the country - sometimes hours away. They would meet at petrol stations to pass her between vehicles.

If she tried to object, the men would become violent and threaten her family.

I think because it started at an early age, after a while you just believe that that's all you're worth
Jane, Groomed and trafficked in UK

"They'd throw you out of the car. They burnt my hair, they've broken bits of my face. They've tried to douse me in petrol and set me on fire," she says.

Because Jane's self-esteem was so eroded, she describes how she no longer put up a fight. She has been left with a number of injuries to her skull and nose as well as permanent internal damage.

"I was scared of what was happening. I think because it started at an early age, after a while you just believe that that's all you're worth."

Jane's abuse went on for nine years - sometimes every day, sometimes with months in between.

Her ordeal was made worse, she says, because police and other agencies didn't believe she was the victim. She finally escaped the clutches of the gangs by contacting the Salvation Army.

"I didn't really have to say much, they just understood and said, 'It's not your fault, we can help you'. Within two hours there was a car to pick me up to take me to a safe place."

Gabby's story, US

It is a similar story in the United States, where tens of thousands of children are being trafficked into prostitution. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says child exploitation is at "near-epidemic levels".

Gabby, from Baltimore, says she was abused by her father between the ages of eight and 12 - a relationship that she feels has influenced how she interacts with men.

"I learnt very early that you could get things that you wanted or needed through sexual favours," she says.

Gabby says she turned to drugs and fell into a relationship with an addict who, years later, pushed her into prostitution.

I didn't have a choice either, but the crazy thing was I thought I did.
Gabby, Forced into prostitution by boyfriend

"I didn't hesitate because I felt like he had taken care of me for all that time and I trusted him. I think that it was his plan to get me to trust him beyond any shadow of any doubt."

Gabby says she soon discovered the "boyfriend pimp" was nothing out of the ordinary on the streets, where she saw underage girls experimenting with drugs before being "snatched up by these guys and forced out there".

"The pimp would sit in his car on a certain corner wherever he had her working so that she would know that he wasn't far away. She was too afraid to run, you know, and there were about five girls out there like that when I was out there."

Gabby managed to escape the streets and leave her boyfriend and, with therapy, is starting to try to make sense of what happened to her. But she says for many of the young girls out on the streets - confused, terrified and trapped in those relationships - getting out can be a matter of life or death.

"And a lot of times you'll wind up going from one situation like that to another and not even realising the pattern of it, until you're able to get around somebody who can help you."
If you or someone you know has been affected by trafficking:

In Nigeria contact the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) on 07030000203, 0800CALLNAPTIP (08002255627847) toll free

In the UK call the modern slavery helpline on 0800 0121 700 run by the Home Office, but if you or someone else is in danger, call the police on 999

In the US contact the National Human Trafficking Resource Center on 1-888-3737-888. In an emergency contact law enforcement on 911.

Series producer: Jacky Martens; Nigeria production by Sam Piranty; UK production by Jacky Martens; US production by Lindle Markwell, Sarah Svoboda and Sam Piranty Web production by Lucy Rodgers, Dominic Bailey and Gerry Fletcher

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Millions of men, women and children around the world are currently victims of human trafficking - bought and sold as commodities into prostitution and forced labour. This trade in people criss-crosses the globe - and it is a lucrative business. The International Labour Office estimates that forced labour generates $150bn (£96bn) in illegal profits every year.

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Suicides among men in prison could be reaching an all-time high as more than twenty inmates are reported to have taken their own lives since May, a leading penal reform campaigner has claimed.

Frances Crook, chief executive of the oldest penal reform charity in the UK, the Howard League for Penal Reform, has called on the country's prison population to be reduced as soon as possible in order to bring the number of suicides down.

Following an independent review into why self-inflicted deaths are occurring in British prisons, the campaigner said overcrowding and understaffed local prisons, along with staff cuts, are causing the number to rise.

In an online blog, Crook said: "Staff don't have time to get to know people and prisoners don't have time to get to know staff."

She added that the men find themselves locked in their cells for most of the time because "there are only a handful of support staff on duty at night doing patrols."

"This is a sad existence," she said.

Having met with the Secretary of State to discuss the 'prison crisis', Crook said that too many men, women and children are being sent to prison on remand and added: "70 per cent of those remanded by magistrates' courts are found not guilty or are given a community sentence.

"Secondly, something must be done to improve the release process for long-term prisoners."

As well as a rise in the number of suicides, another report by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman found other inmates' deaths being linked to drug-taking and that five people have been killed in prisons so far this year.

Crook described how a suicide in prison is a lonely and desperate act, and added: "It should never happen."

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Suicides among male prisoners reaching an 'all-time high'

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Suicides among men in prison could be reaching an all-time high as more than twenty inmates are reported to have taken their own lives since May, a leading penal reform campaigner has claimed.

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The dusty patch of ground in the centre of the narrow lanes and overcrowded tenements of Anand Vihar Colony is empty. No children play cricket, wrestle or run. Even when evening comes and the searing Indian summer temperatures subside, they will remain with their marbles or toys indoors in this poor Delhi neighbourhood.

Basona Bhadra, 26, watches her eight-year-old son, Varu, pour water from one cup to another on her kitchen floor. "He gets breathless and ill," she says. "He doesn't like going out any more. He is happier at home."

Bhadra and her family moved from the city of Meerut, 50 miles away, to Anand Vihar, in the east of the Indian capital, four months ago. She blames the heat for the hacking cough that made her child abandon the energetic games he used to enjoy.

Local doctors disagree. Abhinav Agarwal, a paediatrician in nearby Vaishali, says around a third of his patients suffer chronic respiratory ailments - a consequence, he says, of Delhi's appalling pollution.

Agarwal's conclusions are backed by data. A survey released last year by the World Health Organisation found that Delhi was the most polluted city in the world, with an annual average of 153 micrograms of the most dangerous small particulates, known as PM2.5s, per cubic metre.

The level was six times the WHO's recommended maximum, 12 times US standards and more than twice the level considered safe even by Indian authorities. During winter, when lower temperatures and fires intensify the pollution, concentrations of PM2.5s routinely spike much higher, regularly reaching levels described by experts as hazardous for humans.

The worst hit among Agarwal's patients are children, particularly those aged between two and seven. "They are the most vulnerable. It's been bad for years now. I don't know if it's getting worse, or not. It's definitely not getting better," he says.

There are now fears that millions of children in India will suffer serious health problems later in life.

"If you look at lung function in children [here], there is significant decline with constant exposure. This will probably be irreversible. For adults, there is also a more rapid decline than usual with age. Some suggest it is the equivalent of smoking around 10 cigarettes per day. There is also a higher chance of developing coronary and arterial disease," says Dr Guleria, a lung specialist at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

The WHO found that India has the world's highest rate of death from respiratory disease, with 159 per 100,000 in 2012, about 10 times that of Italy, five times that of the UK and twice that of China. One study found that half of Delhi's 4.4 million schoolchildren would never recover full lung capacity.

Much depends on levels of exposure, which means that children, who in India often cycle or walk to school along busy roads, receive extremely high doses of toxic chemicals and damaging particulates. Daily levels in schools are four times worse than those that are supposed to trigger alerts in London.

In Anand Vihar, the factors that cause pollution across Delhi are particularly severe. There is heavy traffic, swollen by often badly maintained and old trucks and buses; huge landfill rubbish dumps which are sometimes set on fire; filthy industries just a few miles from the city; two coal-fired power stations; nearby intensive construction which generates choking clouds of dust; and, seasonally, smoke from crop burning in fields from farmland in neighbouring states.

Another blackspot in Delhi is Munirka, in the south of the city and close to two heavily congested ring roads.

Meenu Singh, a Munirka resident whose eight-year-old son has severe asthma which doctors blame on pollution, says she would leave the city if she could.

"I'm really worried about my child's health. I don't want him to be in Delhi, but we have no choice at the moment. He is missing exams and school so his education is suffering. We would hope to one day send him to boarding school and even abroad so that he can live an healthy life," she says.

Many expatriate workers have already left the city, with some major international companies now preferring to base executives in Dubai or Bangkok. Classes at international schools in the city have been cut as numbers dwindle.

Delhi saw significant improvement in its air quality a decade ago following a slew of measures including converting buses and autorickshaws to run on gas, moving small industries to zones on the outskirts of the city and raising emission standards. But benefits were swiftly lost.

"We could not keep the momentum. Now there is a new challenge, and it is much more complicated," says Anumita Choudhury of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a Delhi thinktank.

Choudhury says the problem is a "mobility crisis" in Delhi as use of private vehicles has soared while public transport has suffered chronic under-investment. Between 1991 and 2011, the population of Delhi and its adjoining cities more than doubled to 22 million while the number of registered cars and motorbikes increased fivefold to around 8m.

"We love our cars these days and middle class families have two, three, four of them," says Surender Sharma, a retired senior air force officer in Delhi who moved to the top floor of a high rise block on the city's outskirts three years ago to escape air pollution.

Environmentalists say between 40% and 50% of the dangerous PM2.5 particulates in Delhi are caused by vehicles. The figures have been challenged by the car industry. One major problem, all admit, is the 70,000 trucks which drive through the city every night on long-distance journeys. A plan to build a bypass has been repeatedly delayed.

A new metro has barely made an impact, experts say, as almost all those who use it were previously using buses or bicycles, not cars.

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Police officers wear masks as they control traffic in Delhi. Photograph: Altaf Qadri/AP

After being ignored by the media and politicians for many years, the problem of toxic air is now becoming a significant domestic issue with newspapers highlighting the problem.

"Clean air is a human right," Prakash Javadekar, the environment minister, said earlier this year.

The Bharatiya Janata party government won a landslide victory at an election last year. The prime minister, Narendra Modi, campaigned on a promise of boosting India's flagging growth. It has been unclear how he intends to reconcile economic development with protection of India's forests and rivers and an improvement in air quality.

Conflicts between local and national governments, and between agencies, have also hampered efforts.

The result is that no significant policies beyond a national air monitoring index have yet been announced, while many measures introduced elsewhere, such as closing schools during spikes of pollution or forcing old vehicles off the road, have been rejected.

"Only 14% of individual journeys in Delhi are made in private vehicles. It is a small minority who are determining policy in this city so the majority voice has to come out louder to determine travel and investment choices," says Choudhury, of the CSE.

The problem is not restricted to the capital. According to the WHO, 13 of the dirtiest 20 cities in the world are in India.

Medical experts fear a failure to act rapidly could be costly in the long run. "We have a very young population currently being exposed [to severe pollution] and they will have very significant health problems in 15 to 20 years' time. We are just looking at this in terms of short-term economic growth. The health cost has been forgotten," says Guleria, the lung specialist.
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Child health fears at the most polluted spot in the world's most polluted city

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The dusty patch of ground in the centre of the narrow lanes and overcrowded tenements of Anand Vihar Colony is empty. No children play cricket, wrestle or run. Even when evening comes and the searing Indian summer temperatures subside, they will remain with their marbles or toys indoors in this poor Delhi neighbourhood.

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How reliable are crime statistics?, 03/07/2015, Victoria Derbyshire - BBC Two

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Green crime is linked to globalisation and the idea crimes which transcend national boundaries. The sociologist Ulrich Beck (1992) argues we're entering a global risk society (global risks transcend national boundaries) which is far more difficult for single-nation states to manage for its citizens.

In The Green Criminology Monthly Dr. Gary R. Potter discusses Nigel South's, et al (2008) classification of green crimes into two distinct types, primary and secondary. This classification illustrates Foucault's concept of discourse and its ability to change the way we talk about something, the something in this case being crime. When you read these 'new' perceptions of criminality you can see how the discourse of crime has changed because about 30 to 40 years' ago it would have been inconceivable to perceive animal rights as a crime.

Primary green crimes are those crimes which constitute harm inflicted on the environment (and, by extension, those that inflict harm on people because of damage to the environment - our classic 'environmental victims' who suffer health or other problems when the land, water or air they interact with is polluted, damaged or destroyed).

South and colleagues recognised four main categories of primary green crimes: crimes of air pollution, crimes of deforestation, crimes of species decline and animal rights and crimes of water pollution.

Secondary, or "symbiotic green crime is crime that grows out of the flouting of rules that seek to regulate environmental disasters" (Carrabine et al. 2004: 318). South provides two examples of secondary crime.

S tate violence against oppositional groups', such as when the French government bombed the Greenpeace ship 'Rainbow Warrior' to prevent its anti-nuclear campaigning activities.

Their second example is 'hazardous waste and organised crime', such as when Mafia-esque organised crime outfits help corporations side-step strict laws about pollution and disposal of hazardous waste by accepting money to take such waste away - no questions asked.

A narrowly defined green criminology would recognise that nations (and the international community) increasingly legislate to prevent these types of harm: (green) crimes result when such legislation is breached. A broader green criminology, following the traditions of critical and radical criminologies (discussed further here) might recognise that such harms are worthy of study by green criminologists whether or not there is legislation in place and whether or not criminal or other laws are actually broken (criminologists can look at actions that some people think should be defined as crime as well as those that are defined as such).

From this perspective because the planet is one unified eco-system which is global system rather than a local system (local is in your own country, therefore there aren't lots of national eco-systems, just one global eco-system) and single-nation states haven't the power to deal with major environmental disasters. Therefore all green crime transcends political/national borders which need to be addressed by global solutions such as a global police force like UN police force.

Green crimes include air pollution, water pollution, deforestation, species decline and the dumping of hazardous waste. More example of green crimes are explained in the clip blow.

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Green crime is linked to globalisation and the idea crimes which transcend national boundaries. The sociologist Ulrich Beck (1992) argues we're entering a global risk society (global risks transcend national boundaries) which is far more difficult for single-nation states to manage for its citizens. In The Green Criminology Monthly Dr. Gary R.

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Media & Crime: cyber crime rising article

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Media & Crime: cyber crime rising article

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Cybercrime is becoming an increasing threat to the financial services sector, according to a report by an accountancy firm.

Cybercrime relates to economic crime committed using computers and the internet, such as stealing bank details.

The PwC report claimed that cases, and the perceived threat from the crime, had grown in the sector globally.

It also suggested that fraud by staff was becoming more of an issue.

The percentage of frauds in which senior management were involved had risen from 12% of cases in 2009 to 18% of cases in 2011, PwC said.

"This suggests that tone at the top and overall senior management attitude to fighting fraud is worsening, and presents an increasing challenge for non-executive board members," said Andrew Clark, forensic services partner at PwC.

The report was based on analysis of 3,877 responses to PwC's questions from organisations in 79 countries.

The findings suggested that the financial services sector was the most common target of fraudsters.

Asset misappropriation remained the biggest area of fraud in this industry, followed by cybercrime.

The latter featured fraudsters taking over accounts, siphoning off money, or by stealing the customer's data and using it to impersonate the customer, or selling the data so that others may impersonate the customer.

PwC said this crime put the "customers, brand and reputation at significant risk".

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Cybercrime is becoming an increasing threat to the financial services sector, according to a report by an accountancy firm. Cybercrime relates to economic crime committed using computers and the internet, such as stealing bank details. The PwC report claimed that cases, and the perceived threat from the crime, had grown in the sector globally.

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Crime prevention and control

There are a load of approaches to crime prevention, and they each raise questions about social control and the ability of societies to regulate behaviour. There are other explanations (look up locality and crime)
Situational crime prevention (SCP): RIGHT REALIST
This essentially doesn't try to change institutions or anything about the society but just reduce opportunities for people to commit crime. Ron Clarke (1992) describes situational crime prevention as 'a pre-emptive approach that relies not on improving society, but simply on reducing opportunities for crime.' It's based on Rational Choice theory that criminal weigh up pros and cons. Clarke identifies 3 methods of situational crime prevention;

Directed at specific crimes

Involve managing or altering the immediate environment

Aim to increase effort and reduce benefits of crime-relate

' Target hardening' involves, locking doors, employing security guards, re-shaping environment with fewer crime hotspots, and CCTV

For example; Marcus Felson (1998) looks at SCP in the Port Authority Bus Terminal in NY and how it was poorly designed and provided deviant opportunities.

Or Poyner and Webb (1997) used a field exp and discovered that there was a high rate of theft in the Bullring centre in Birmingham and that thefts occurred in 2 markets which were densely packed. They redesigned the markets and crime fell by 70%.

-They do not stop crime they just displace it. If criminals are rational then they would obviously just commit crime somewhere with softer controls. Chaiken et al (1974) found that a crackdown on subway-robberies only lead to crime above the surface

+Works to a certain extent on some crimes but not all, like homeless people using public spaces for homes, when there is no where to stay they will move

+SCP may not always lead to displacement, in the 60's they changed the gas system from highly toxic gas to less toxic gas, this lessened the suicide rates because they could not any more (there wasn't the situational opportunity), as the overall rate declined there was no displacement.

-Ignores white-collar crime/bigger more MC crimes

-Assumes criminals act rationally but that doesn't work for violent crimes and crimes under influence of drugs

-Ignores the root causes of crime, such as poverty or poor socialisation

-CCTV is bad. Norris and Armstrong (1998) found that camera operators focus on young males. Feminists argue that CCTV is just an extension of the 'male gaze' not a solution.
Opportunity for crime;
-Felson and Clarke (1998) suggest that the higher levels of opportunity are the 'root cause' of crime

-Brantingham & Brantingham (1995) suggest that urban areas have more crime generating and attracting areas such as -shopping precincts, warehouses, leisure facilities, large insecure car parks
Environmental crime prevention: RIGHT REALIST
Basically, Wilson and Kelling who devised the Broken Windows thesis argue that if a place is left to disrepair then it will only get worse and cause more crime. This absence of formal and informal controls (police and community) makes the people living them feel powerless and intimidated by fear of crime. Respectable people move out of the area and this leaves room for deviants.

Zero tolerance two part strategy. Wilson and Kelling say that there needs to be a crack down in two areas for crime to be under control.

Environmental improvement strategy: tidying the place up immediately, repairing broken windows and towing abandoned cars away right away. For example in New York where Kelling was police advisor they eradicated graffiti from subway carts as when there was graffiti on them, they were taken out of service and returned once clean. Graffiti subsequently declined.

Policing strategy: they have to deal with every type of crime no matter how petty. For example, also in New York there was a police crack down on 'Squeegee merchants' (people who clean windscreens in traffic and demand payment) who were found to have outstanding warrants for violent and property crimes.

-Although its not clear if these declines were to do with police strategies, as there was a massive jump in police numbers and a fall in unemployment at the same time. Also the general crime rates of US cities declined at the time anyway, also drugs weren't as widely available anymore.

Social and Community crime prevention:
This aims to get rid of the causes of crime; the causes in the community and socially that can pre-dispose people to crime. A lot of policies which have come into place about poverty and employment have actually decreased crime anyway, even if the policy wasn't aimed at that in the first instance.

They try to increase youth leisure opportunities, more unemployment, employment schemes, and improving poor housing.

The Perry pre-school project:

A comparison between an experimental group of 3-4 year olds in a two-year intellectual enrichment programme, for black pre-schoolers in Michigan. Longitudinal. They were given weekly home visits. By 40 they were compared to the control group showing that they are significantly lower life times arrests and more were employed and had graduated from high school.

Left and Right realists focus on the reality of crime, and on crimes that matter to the people and the impact of these on daily life. The realists perspectives differ on their approaches to crime, but they both look at some of the methods above.
Left realists:
Believe that offenders and victims of crime all come from similar area's, disadvantaged ones. They believe this is because of material and cultural deprivation, like unemployment, poverty, poor housing and education. They want to prevent crime and so look at the Social and Community methods of prevention.

-Left realist approaches are 'soft' on crime, meaning that they focus on social issues and causes and not on whether the offender just felt like offending, or made a rational choice to. They romanticise the offender and make him a victim of circumstance.

-Ignores middle class crime

-Not everyone who faces marginalisation, as well as material and cultural deprivation turn to crime.

-They deflect proper strategies to stop crime, like tighter policing.
Right realists:
Offenders choice to commit crime, its an individual act. It believes in Situational crime prevention (above) but also increased social control generally. Like Hirschi's social bonds theory, right realists want to tighten these bonds and aid socialisation by strengthening institutions like the nuclear family, religion and community.

-They miss the wider social causes that Left realists address

-They ignore that some people are targeted unfairly by police (labelling theory)

-They assume it's all rational choice but impulsive acts like violence aren't exactly rational and still occur. Think about Lyng's research on 'Edgework' and Katz seduction of crime, these just further show that it's not a rational choice to offend but for the buzz (they did it for the vine).
What is missing from these crime prevention methods?
They all seem to focus on low level crime, and violence. This just ignored high level more corporate and environmental crimes, which is annoying as these are potentially the most devastating and harmful crimes. For instance Whyte surveys 26 crime and disorder partnerships in NW England to see what crimes they were targeting, they were focussing on vehicle, property and drug crime, when at the same time the Environment Agency gave 98 prosecutions in 2001-2 for environmental offences (huge issue but not targeted). The NW also had one of the highest concentrations of chemical plants in Europe with just two plants expelling about 40% of the countries cancer-causing pollution each year.

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There are a load of approaches to crime prevention, and they each raise questions about social control and the ability of societies to regulate behaviour. There are other explanations (look up locality and crime) Situational crime prevention (SCP): RIGHT REALISTThis essentially doesn’t try to change institutions or anything about the society but just reduce opportunities for people to commit crime.

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Introduction to Organised Crime- summary sheet

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Introduction to Organised Crime- summary sheet

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Interactionism: Primary and Secondary labelling

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Interactionism: Primary and Secondary labelling

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Ethnicity and Crime: Stephen Lawrence case

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Ethnicity and Crime: Stephen Lawrence case

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Crime serving the function of social integration (Functionalism)

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Crime serving the function of social integration (Functionalism)

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Social class & crime: Middle class criminals

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Social class & crime: Middle class criminals

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More than 60% of people in England and Wales admitted in a survey that they had padded an insurance claim, paid cash to avoid taxation or kept the money when given too much change. In western Germany, the proportion was even higher, at 70%.

Two scientists from the University of Keele told the British Association science festival at Salford yesterday that 70% of Britons questioned felt that they themselves had been ripped off or been made victims by businesses, banks and tradesmen.

The "crimes" were committed at the kitchen table, from the home computer, from call centres and office desks, in supermarkets and restaurants. The lesson was that a market society was not inevitably an honest one.

"We think that these illegal, unfair and shady practices that are committed by consumers and business alike are very important for our understanding of the morality of our society," said Susanne Karstedt, a criminologist at Keele.

"How citizens and consumers and business - small and large scale - act in the marketplace and when they deal with government services or pay their taxes is the bedrock of attitudes which resulted in the Enron scandal and a number of other high level cases."

Crimes such as taking something from the office or asking a friend to bend the rules might involve only minor damage, but set up a vicious cycle. For more than a decade insurers and the health services had complained of increasing fraud, retailers had seen themselves as victims of customers who took unfair advantage of generous offers and terms; small tradesmen reported that customers fraudulently tried to make them responsible for damage.

Conversely, consumers claimed they were victimised by their insurance companies, were sold useless insurance, were defrauded by small print clauses and were charged for bogus repairs and used parts sold as new.

"We ask ourselves: is a predatory society emerging here? What is clear is that tolerance for all this is far higher than zero," Professor Karstedt said.

She and colleague Stephen Farrell collected reports from insurers and investigation officers and found that car parking scams cost one borough council £100,000 a month in revenue, and that fraudulent claims in household and motor insurance added up to £1bn a year. Social security scams were defrauding the British taxpayer of more than £570m a year.

They quizzed 4,000 people aged 25-65 in England and Wales and western Germany to see how many admitted white collar dishonesty. Germans outstripped the English and Welsh in all but one kind of crime: they were less likely to keep change given in error.
Top 10 'white collar' crimes Crime / England & Wales / W Germany
Paid cash to avoid tax 34% / 54%

Kept money when overchanged 32% / 30%

Taken something from work 18% / 28%

Avoided paying TV licence 11% / 24%

Wrongly used identity cards 11% / 20%

Padded an insurance claim 7% / 22%

Asked official to break the rules 6% / 28%

Claimed wrongly for refunds 5% / 17%

Not disclosed faulty goods 8% / 13%

Deliberately misclaimed benefits 3% / 10%
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Meet criminals who cost UK £14bn: the middle class

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More than 60% of people in England and Wales admitted in a survey that they had padded an insurance claim, paid cash to avoid taxation or kept the money when given too much change. In western Germany, the proportion was even higher, at 70%.

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Prison doesn't work article by Owen Jones

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Prison doesn't work article by Owen Jones

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Prison is where we dump - disproportionately - poor people suffering from mental distress. They are left in overcrowded cells, looked after by ever fewer prison officers, with a service that was poor to begin with and which is deteriorating in an era of austerity. There is little effort to reintegrate them into society. The news, then, that Glen Parva young offenders' prison has descended into something out of The Lord of the Flies - as the Howard League for Penal Reform puts it - should frighten but certainly not shock us.

According to a report from HM Inspectorate for Prisons, reports of self-harm at Glen Parva have jumped from 274 to 316 in a year. Prisoners are being bullied, with other inmates demanding that they pay an official "rent" for their cells; those victimised are forced to hand over money and food. The number of assaults against other prisoners and staff has jumped by a quarter in a year. It is difficult to see how the 660 prisoners aged between 18 and 21 are going to walk out of those prison doors as reformed human beings with a future.

Glen Parva may look bleak, but it would be a mistake to treat it as an exception. Suicides in prisons have jumped by an astonishing 69% in the last year; and self-harm overall is 27% higher than when the coalition assumed power. Prisons are expected to impose budget cuts of up to a quarter, even as they have to deal with the highest incarceration rate in western Europe. Take Nottingham Prison, which holds 1,000 prisoners even though it is only supposed to accommodate about 700, leading prison officers to warn that assaults are soaring because of overcrowding and budget cuts.

Under the John Major and Tony Blair administrations, the number of young people aged between 10 and 17 who are locked up trebled. For those who think prison works, the figures offer a frightening rendezvous with reality: over 70% of under-18s reoffend within 12 months of being released. Prison isn't helping them, and it isn't helping keep people safe either.

Prisoners are, by and large, people who have been failed. According to the Prison Reform Trust, 62% of male and 52% of female prisoners have at least one personality disorder. How locking them all up deals with these underlying conditions - particularly when they are confronted with the conditions of institutions like Glen Parva - is an unanswered mystery. There is an undoubted race element, too. In 2010, black people were five times more likely to be incarcerated, and those figures are unlikely to have improved since then.

Our prison system tells us a lot about our society. The law exists to clamp down on the misdemeanours of the poor, but the far more socially destructive behaviour of the rich is tolerated. Financiers did not end up imprisoned for helping to plunge the world into economic disaster, and yet the director of public prosecutions was last year talking about imposing prison sentences of up to 10 years for those who commit benefit fraud.

Does that mean I'm advocating redressing the balance, imposing strict new laws that drag the well-heeled into overcrowded prison cells? In actual fact, I wouldn't have imprisoned my Guardian colleague Chris Huhne, or even Andy Coulson either. Except for those who commit violent and particularly wicked crimes, we should not be locking up tens of thousands each year, whether they be a mentally distressed young black man, or a prosperous well-connected pillar of the establishment. But until we find another way, these prisons will continue to serve as overcrowded dens of misery, where human beings are left to fester, dumped out of sight until they reoffend all over again.
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Prison doesn't work - as the Glen Parva shambles shows | Owen Jones

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Prison is where we dump - disproportionately - poor people suffering from mental distress. They are left in overcrowded cells, looked after by ever fewer prison officers, with a service that was poor to begin with and which is deteriorating in an era of austerity. There is little effort to reintegrate them into society.

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Victims in England and Wales are still being let down by the justice system, according to an independent review.

Baroness Newlove, the Victims' Commissioner, said many people who raised concerns about their treatment were left feeling ignored.

Helen Newlove came to prominence after her husband was killed by a gang of youths outside their home in 2007.

This is her first major review since being appointed as a commissioner in 2012.

The report looked at the experiences of more than 200 victims who had complained about how they were dealt with by services including the police, probation and the courts system.

'Dismissed and confused'

Almost 75% of those consulted said they were unhappy with the response they received and more than 50% found the relevant agency's complaints process difficult to use.

She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that victims need time, understanding and compassion.

"Victims will only be at the heart of the criminal justice system if you allow them to understand the journey they are going through," she said.

Baroness Newlove said it was clear many victims were still not getting the service they deserved and there was a gap between what criminal justice agencies described and the victim's experience.

"All it takes is basic human decency to explain to a victim, in a sensitive and timely way, why something has gone wrong and what they can do about it." she said.

"It is shocking how many victims told me how ignored, dismissed and confused they felt when they tried to raise concerns about their treatment."

One victim said the complaints process was so daunting that it "was almost worse than the actual journey of being a victim".

Another told the review: "I'm just frightened. I think they will harass me if I complain about the way they have treated me and my daughter."

The commissioner has laid out a new set of standards which she expects the government and agencies to adopt when responding to concerns from victims.

Victims' Commissioner's Standards

Clear information for victims to support them in raising a concern or making a complaint about the service they have received

Information on what to do if they are not happy with the response they receive

Agencies commit to mandatory training for all staff who deal with victims' complaints

Agencies publish information showing how complaints from victims have led to improvements in services.

Victims' rights campaigner Maggie Hughes, whose son Robert was left in a coma after being attacked, said: "We victims are not just complainers.

"If anything, we are thrown into a new world of rules and regulations and then into a dark labyrinth of the unknown.

"This important report shows just how crucial it is to listen to victims. If we feel that we are not satisfied with a service, then we should be able to get clear guidelines on how to complain, regular updates and a full explanation of the outcome."

Victims' minister Mike Penning said the government had already committed to giving victims legal rights, and strengthening victims' entitlements through the Victims' Code, and was reviewing whether new powers are needed "so that they can better hold the system to account."

He said: "I welcome Baroness Newlove's dedication and hard work supporting my goal to make the system better for victims.

"She recommends many sensible new standards in this important report, which I will carefully consider."

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Victims in England and Wales are still being let down by the justice system, according to an independent review. Baroness Newlove, the Victims' Commissioner, said many people who raised concerns about their treatment were left feeling ignored. Helen Newlove came to prominence after her husband was killed by a gang of youths outside their home in 2007.