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A Brief History of Crime
 
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A Brief History of Crime (Hardcover)

by Peter Hitchens (Author)
3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Atlantic Books; Reprint edition (10 April 2003)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1843541483
  • ISBN-13: 978-1843541486
  • Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.2 x 3.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 66,016 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review

Hitchens makes it clear from the start that he is a member of the hang 'em and flog 'em brigade, and declares that Britain will never become safe again until politicians adopt the same stance. As a columnist for the Mail on Sunday, his views express much of what Middle England has thought for a long time and they continue the theme begun in his earlier book, The Abolition of Britain. The liberal Left will challenge virtually all of Hitchens's interpretations, not to mention his suggestions on how to put things right. He advocates zero tolerance against not just the crooks in society but also the antisocial and the inconsiderate. Police must be put back on the beat, the 'massaging' of crime figures has to end, and the right of proper self-protection must be restored to the individual, he says. Present policies, which he regards with scorn as far too softly-softly, have only encouraged the explosion in crime and removed freedom from law-abiding citizens. 'England is rapidly becoming a place where the good are afraid of the bad and the bad are not afraid of anything,' he writes. And he believes the police have become 'a distant bureaucracy whose main purpose is to function as a crime-reporting agency for government statisticians and insurance companies'. There is much more hard-hitting stuff along those lines. But this is no mere polemical outburst - Hitchens looks at the wider social context too and offers some solutions that many would consider to be common sense. As a first step, he advocates jettisoning the idea that criminals are themselves victims and that they need help rather than punishment. Whether you agree with ideas such as this or not, they focus on a real problem in society and raise many talking points. (Kirkus UK)


Product Description

Crime is a political football - both left and right are terrified of seeming "soft" on the issue, but for all their efforts, or apparent efforts, crime rates continue to rise. Clearly something needs to be done. But what? Peter Hitchens argues that the time has come to re-examine the criminal justice system root and branch - to cope with rising levels of violent crime, and to restore public faith in society's ability to defend itself. Whatever you think of the solutions Hitchens suggests to this problem, you can be sure that they will excite controversy.
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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.6 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking stuff for the new century., 29 Jun 2003
By ch0pper "ch0pper" (SOUTHAMPTON, Hampshire United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
I loathe Peter Hitchens.

I loathe his arrogance, his smugness and his patronising manner.

To my astonishment, I found this book to be quite superb.

Hitchens brings his mind to bear on the collapse of British society and the huge increase in crime that has occurred since WW2.

I was really surprised to find that I agree with almost all of his analyses and potential solutions. The book charts the rise of the 'liberal left elite' and the imposition of their social, political and moral standards on what is essentially conservative country, England. The book does not address the issues in Scotland, since it is a different jurisdiction and data is not fully compatible with those available for England & Wales. (Of course, the overwhelming majority of Hitchens' thoughts are applicable to both Scotland and Northern Ireland.)

If you wonder how we came to live in the crime-ridden and discourteous society that we now 'enjoy', then this book will answer many of your questions.

If you are of the left, and more interested in 'rights' than civil society and order, you might find this book hard to swallow. Nonetheless, I would recommend that you sit down and read it. If nothing else, you'll find out how you are going wrong.

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32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A long overdue corrective to liberal smugness, 7 Oct 2003
I live in an area of inner London which has a very high crime rate, and the best recommendation I could give this book is that it describes an England that I recognise intimately from my everyday life. Its description of crime in our big cities and the impotence and indifference towards its besieged inhabitants by the authorities rings absolutely true, from the scream of police car sirens on their way to crimes that have already been committed and the complete absence of policemen and women on foot from the streets for weeks at a time, to the creeping political correctness in the Met that undermines good and effective policing with sinister irrelevance. Contrary to our Guardian-reading friend below, who seems not to have actually bothered reading the book, Hitchens does not suggest bringing back hanging as the starting point for lower crime rates. His first suggestion is a return to preventive policing (as opposed to "fire-brigade" or reactive policing) on foot, which was abandoned in the late 60s when policemen were put into cars. He traces the process whereby this happened in illuminating detail. Liberal prison regimes and their persistent failure either to punish (very un-PC) or rehabilitate the growing prison population are likewise analysed with a useful historical perspective as to how they got that way. Other areas that receive attention are the jury system, drug laws, the death penalty, gun control and the Macpherson report. The civil liberties repercussions of the liberal elite's policies are also pointed out - their attempt to regain control of a situation that is out of hand does not involve a return to the successful principles set out by Sir Robert Peel when he established the Metropolitan Police, but the abolition of double jeopardy, the restriction of trial by jury and the loss of the right to silence amongst others. If you are looking for a book that dissents from the official line that the government and its chums are tackling crime and continual new "initiatives" are making a real difference, then buy this book. If you'd rather believe that the rocketing crime statistics are the product of the crazed imaginations of red-faced Daily Mail readers, then you really should buy this book. And get out more.
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and thought-provoking, 2 Feb 2004
This book will be cordially-loathed by the left-wing, self-styled elite - and very much welcomed by ordinary people who want to feel safe in their homes and on the streets. Much of what is to be found here mirrors experience that many of us today have of the police - I was told by the police when I reported my car stolen that they would issue me with a crime- reference number for the insurance claim but they would not investigate its disappearance. Hitchens raises some very pertinent questions, and rakes over some very interesting historical and contemporary information to make what seems an unanswerable case. This book should be required reading for every police constable, every politician and a vade-mecum for the Home Secretary.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Absolute tosh
If this is the kind of book one can expect from 'everyday people', then it's just as well there aren't more of them around to write. Read more
Published on 22 Mar 2007 by samivel

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, a few spurious arguments
Peter Hitchens have presented a clear, well-argued, and researched argument against the liberal mentality that passes for analysis of crime and justice issues. Read more
Published on 7 May 2004 by Justin P

5.0 out of 5 stars The betrayal of the law-abiding
This book records the decline of order in Britain. It is coherent, rational, well written and above all, indisputable to all but the wilfully blind. Read more
Published on 24 Sep 2003

1.0 out of 5 stars A great book; for Daily Mail readers
A great book for anyone looking for a shallow, knee jerk, hanging judge jeffries reaction to the problems of law and order. Read more
Published on 19 Sep 2003 by duncanbowers

3.0 out of 5 stars Balancing views of an english future
I found this book and the content in the way Peter Hitchens has prepared it a very useful companion book for my studies looking at the political, economic and sociological aspects... Read more
Published on 24 May 2003

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