Sharp Increases In Crime In Britain

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29269, 29 July 1960, Page 13

Sharp Increases In Crime In Britain

LONDON, July 27.

Some quarters in England and Wales were

beginning to believe that crime did pay, and criminal statistics of the last few years gave strength to this belief, senior police officials reported today.

The annual report of inspectors of police in England and Wales, published today, said that since 1954, crime throughout the country had increased. Sharp increases in crimes of violence and against property were “particularly disquieting.” The provisional figures for 1959 indicated that 675,825 indictable (offences generally tried by a jury) offences were known to the police—an increase of 8 per cent over the previous year. The biggest increases were in frauds and false pretences, 16 per cent.; violence against the person, 14 per cent; sexual offences, 13 per cent; and malicious injuries to property. 13 per cent. London’s crime rate soared to a new record post-war peak last year, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Joseph Simpson, said in his annual report. also published in London

today. The report said the police force was over 2500 men under strength. Sir Joseph said there were 167,343 known indictable offences last year—an increase of 10.2 per cent, compared with the previous highest total of 151,796 in 1958. Arrests or summonses for these offences went up by only 4 per cent. Referring to the Street Offences Act of 1959. which made it illegal for prostitutes to solicit on the streets or in public places. Sir Joseph said street prostitution had been virtually cleared overnight. Although critics had said that prostitution was operating from "dens" and "dives,” the police had not come across any ''significant trend in this direction." Sir Joseph also reported a 12.1 per cent, increase in road casualties. which, in 1959, totalled more han 71.900.