Finding this Issue scary?
Tiff @ the BNC
09 January 2019
The UK is a very safe place to live
Crime can be an issue that scares people. The news is full of scary stories about serious crimes which can make it feel like these kinds of crimes are happening all the time and everywhere. It's important to remember that this is not true.
One of the reasons why the Burnet News Club is discussing this issue is to learn about how the media sometimes makes news stories seem scarier than they actually are, or presents things in ways that aren't quite accurate.
We are looking at an unusual increase in certain crimes and ways to reverse this. But even with the increase, the UK is a very safe place to live.
The overall levels of violent crime in England and Wales are much lower than when you were born.
Here are some bits of information to show that the UK is generally a very safe place to live:
1) The overall levels of violent crime in England and Wales are much lower than when you were born.
2) Murder in the UK is very rare compared to other places. In the UK one person in every hundred thousand people is murdered. Compare that to the statistic that one person in every fifty thousand dies from playing football!
3) In some countries that figure is much higher. For example in Brazil the murder rate is 30 times higher than in the UK.
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/VC.IHR.PSRC.P5?locations=GB
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/crimeinenglandandwales
During this issue, we do not want you to focus on details of specific crimes committed. We want to look at some possible reasons behind the rise and suggestions for how to prevent it. We also want you to develop a healthy scepticism you can apply when confronted with stories in the news.
QUESTIONS FOR BNC MEMBERS
Why is it important to know these facts?
Did any of these facts surprise you?
Comments (34)
09 Jan 2019
the part about Brazil yes
Can you explain your comment further... What is surprising about it? Why did you have a different expectation?
09 Jan 2019
I felt it was surprising because Brazil is not the kind of country I thought will be violent. In a newspaper I will see a crime every day but I never saw news about Brazil or any other countries so I think England has a lot of crime ,but I am wrong.
I think it was important to know these facts because you might think you have to stay inside for most of the day because outside will be dangerous and you will become really overprotected
Well done for explaining your response!
You're right the UK newspapers don't often report on crimes going on in Brazil or other countries, but they report a lot about crime in the UK. Why might they choose to do this?
Well done for also pointing out that understanding the whole picture is important so we don't over-worry or over-react.
09 Jan 2019
I have posted something about cyberbullying and can you read it please. Don't forget to comment your thoughts. Please Tiff @ the BNC
Hi determined_orange,
Well done for entering the weekly competitions and I can see that you've been reading some of the posts for this issue.
Unfortunately we cannot publish your post for a few reasons.
1)We only publish posts which are relevant to the issue BNC members are covering. We look at a different issue every six weeks. This half term- the focus is on the rise of violent crime.
2)You can only use images that we have pre-uploaded for an issue or you have created yourself. This is because of copyright laws.
I'd suggest getting involved with some of the discussions by commenting with your own opinions. You could answer some of the questions you see in the post or that I've asked underneath posts. Then try to think of a new discussion topic which is about our main issue to write a longer post about.
10 Jan 2019
thank you tiff this is very reassuring I didn't know that Brazil had a high murder rate than the uk in my opinion this should actually be dealt with because people are handing out fake news be over emphasising things that make the situation bigger than it really is
11 Jan 2019
how do you feel about violent crime Tiff do you think its good or bad?I think that crime is bad
I agree with you. I'm not sure there are any reasons for violent crime being seen as good.
11 Jan 2019
I think this is scary because u don’t know what will happen one day because the hole world Is scary and I’m not allowed to play out because of the crime
Sometimes the world can seem scary. We want to know what is happening so that we can be part of the conversation about how to stop it, but it's also important to remember that the UK is very safe, especially compared to some other parts of the world.
13 Jan 2019
As we’ve heard in the issue, England 🏴 and Wales 🏴 is what we will be looking at. If you find or feel like it’s not a safe place, then you should really consider yourself in a safer environment than other places that has a war going on like Yemen 🇾🇪 or Syria 🇸🇾. There’s a lot of police in the UK 🇬🇧.
Yes it's true
13 Jan 2019
I think that, although murder in the UK is significantly low compared to other countries, it is still worthwhile to learn and discuss it as it will stop murder increasing to what it was a century ago.
14 Jan 2019
England has quite a lot of crime but we’re very lucky that we don’t live in a war torn country also I feel sympathetic for foreign family’s who are affected by war and crime.
14 Jan 2019
Yes I agree with affable_weaver, we should discuss about crime and to understand the cause of crime and how to prevent it. From our first session, initially I was surprised to hear in general that violent crime in Uk is actually lower compared to a decade ago. So it’s fair to say, that the constant media reporting of Knife crime etc does actually skew your perception in thinking Uk is unsafe. The data from the first link from in this post shows violent crime was at its lowest in 2014. However since 2014 it went up and continued to rise to 2016 but no data for 2017/18 to show whether it has increase since. Is violent crime getting worse? (Please note: I was unable to access the second link to look for more information)
According to one BBC article, (Jan 2018) showed that recorded violent crime is rising from a decade ago, this was based on the data from the police force. The article also highlights the fact that the number of police officers has continued to fall: in the 12 months to last September, down 930 to 121,929.
Suggesting that violent crime is being increased might be linked to a reduction of police officers. Could this be one factor of many other factors? I believe violent crime is a very complex issue and solutions to the problem is not an easy one to solve. Nonetheless if we all discuss it, we might get some idea of what is going on.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42815768
The guardian reports (April 2008) ‘Knife and gun crime has surged in England and Wales, but the causes and solutions are unclear’. Supporting data does shows a sharp increase in crime involving knives throughout England. However, the article say these crimes don’t occur very often and the vast majority of people will not be a victim of violent crime but the problem is, they do attract a lot of media attention with most of the media coverage focusing on London. The upside is, overall crime has continued to decrease in the past decade.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/apr/27/why-are-knife-and-gun-offences-on-the-rise-and-who-is-most-at-risk
So yes, I probably agree- the Uk is generally a safer place to live and by comparing Uk violent crimes to other countries can also help put that into perspective. So looking further through that first link, I was curious to know, how does Uk violent crimes compare to France? Because France is our neighbour and is similar to the UK in the fact that it is far more developed country than Brazil. And to my surprise, the data shows that the Uk has had a constant lower violent crime rate than France from 2000-2016 - this was a real eye opener for me! I suppose it was easier to accept that violent crime is higher in Brazil because I have often heard unsafe stories about Brazil along with other Latin American countries and people being weary of going there.
I think it’s very important to look further into the full facts and get a fuller, accurate picture of what is really going on, otherwise, just like the other members have said, you might feel afraid to go out and let it overrule your life. However, if you have more information about a particular area being unsafe, it may help you to take better precaution and reduce risk to certain places.
Fantastic comment creative_sparrow!
You've shown BNC members that contributing to a discussion with a long comment can really enrich the conversation. Other BNC members take note!!
You've shown curiosity by seeking out statistics for crime in France and explained how that has affected your own opinion.
You suggest fewer police might be a reason for the recent rise. Can you find any other reasons?
14 Jan 2019
Thank you for the star! I definitely will be researching this further and looking into other possible reasons to violent crime so we can all help to get a fuller understanding of the problem
and maybe we can all help come up with some possible solutions, because it's really sad and tragic when you think about it.
14 Jan 2019
I suppose an obvious reason would be poverty and probably is a major factor why people commit violent crime however there are a lot of people I know that are poor but would never get into any aspects of crime whatsoever. So it does make you wonder why do certain people fall into crime and especially gang culture which no doubt has put knife crime high in the media spotlight. It’s always tragic to hear a young person has been killed due to all this gang warfare.
17 Jan 2019
if i was doing something during the scary scene i would kinda be scared because of the police nearby and if there's no police i would have to contact 911 and make sure they come immediately and if the killer finds me i would hae to run and call for help and i have to keep on running and hiding and if id died the police would know who killed me because of his/her fingerprints that what i would do
Remember that in the UK, the emergency services are reached on 999. 911 is the number you dial in America.
I though that it does nit matter which emergency service you ring as it will always re direct to your nearest wmergency service number.
For example, a few years ago there was a prank going on that told people to ring 108(Indian police). The reason why this prank worked is that it would always go back to 999 or your local police.
18 Jan 2019
I was surprised by No. 2, the fact that "In the UK one person in every hundred thousand people is murdered and that one person in every fifty thousand dies from playing football!" I think I found this surprising because when you play football, you'd only get some minor injuries, - most of the time - compared to dying! I did know the fact that Brazil wasn't as safe as the Uk, but it was surprising to see that it was over 30 times higher! And I thought the UK seemed scary! I find it is important to know these facts so that we can be a bit more aware and not think that the UK is incredibly unsafe because of all these things going on, where in actual fact it isn't, as I've learned in this post.
21 Jan 2019
the second fact (the end part) about how many people die playing football surprised me! and London is a safe place to live
21 Jan 2019
The third fact (about in Brazil) was probably the most surprising to me because you wouldn't expect that many people to be dying and killing every day. Just imagine what that would to to their families and friends. How would you feel?
22 Jan 2019
Well I really like your explanation and I just wanted to say that you are right the UK is a safe place to live and little kids might find it scary
22 Jan 2019
Do you think you could improve in something?
24 Jan 2019
I always thought that England and Wales were very unsafe, thanks for telling me otherwise
24 Jan 2019
By the way Tiff please check out my post called Witnesses: What can they do?
24 Jan 2019
Or Olivia?!
24 Jan 2019
your news is good
24 Jan 2019
i agree
25 Jan 2019
I found this issue very scary because I'm not really good with crimes and I'm the only one who's scared of this issue so my friends are scared but I'm really scared .
I know that you can a very safe place but and one of the videos and save that murdering and my friend has increased instead of decreasing.
I know that UK is a safe place I will talk to you in a video on this issue it says that and knife crime has increased since 1995.
The thought just scares me of people being killed by crimeseven though I have heard people saying that UK is one of the safest countries in Europe.
So the answer to the question is yes I am very scared of this issue. I hope that in the future when I grow up things will be better.
If l was killed or murdered I would be the most scared person on the world you see in the rest of my text I am not really good with crimes. I hope that when I grow up things are you better. 😔
You're right. These issues can feel very scary, but they are still really important to talk about. If you are worried, please make sure you talk to an adult either at home, or at school.
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