At least one police officer is attacked on duty every hour, according to figures from the Home Office.
And separate figures revealed that the number of officers killed or injured by a firearm has soared by 250 per cent since 1997.

bert, somerset,

Absolute tripe. I was at the Headingley while police stood and watched hundreds of people get drunk and disorderly. It got out of hand by the end of the day and the stewards could do nothing about it. No crime committed because no crime was recorded. There are lies, damned lies and statistics.

R.F.Chamberlain, Leeds,

So the overall crime rate is falling? Great news - this means that the police can at last start to focus on all the minor crimes like graffiti and vandalism they've been telling us they're too busy to deal with for the past 10 years. And pigs will fly.....

Dean, London, UK

Good article daniel although i'm not entirely sure that zero tolerance is the best method to deal with all forms of crime it is nice to see at least one writer at the Times not capitulating to hysterical media gossip and giving the facts a fair hearing.

Hamish, London,

My daughter was robbed by a violent criminal with a violent past.
She's had her belongings seized for forensic examination. She's identified his clothing and he was arrested.
The CPS have decided that no further action will be taken due to the cost of forensics!
Justice???
Criminals will thrive!

Shaun, Newcastle, Tyneside

We used to have a recidivists law. But it was scrapped. Why? If you're a career criminal, then I'm sorry but the only place for you is in jail, and not a nice cushy jail, a not so nice jail, where people dont want to be. Make jail a scary place, and people wont want to go back there.

Arthur, Newcastle,

When assessing the level of crime, I don't look at statistics, I look at what's happening in my local high street,and it is quite clear from looking at my local high street that crime is rising,not falling.

Have you tried reporting a crime to the police? It is impossible. They don't want to know.

Jonathan Bryce, Reading, Berkshire

Sam, Oxford. Prison only works short term because they keep letting them back out and if they keep reoffending keep them in.The liberal policies addressing social change and underlying causes aren't and will never work so protect the majority of decent citizens and build more prisons.

simon, chelmsford, england

Crime may fall in the short-term if you lock lots of bad men up. If you wait until after they have spawned to lock them up, though, you are just creating another generation of kids without a father...

Prison may work, but is it the only, or the cheapest, solution that does?

Josh, London,

Anyway, I thought it is now well-established that the drop in the NYC crime-rate was as a result of Roe-v-Wade, and nothing to do with Zero-Tolerance?

Josh, London,

Crime sells papers. If there is a fall in crime, don't worry, just increase the coverage given to each case. If the crime is committed in London, double the column inches.

diana, derby, uk

To solve a problem, one looks at the cause of the problem first. Based on this, if what Finkelstein is true, the reason people commit crime is because they are not in prison. Yet I am not in prison and I don't commit crime. If you really want to cut crime, you look at the reasons people commit it.

Glen Kristensen, London,

As the economic worries multiply and jobs start to evaporate .
The great British public will find an end to a means , in some cases that will involve crime , so in these hard times would it not be prudent to start building the occasional new prison now.

Nick Dixon, Sutton Coldfield, England

Mr Fink

You've just done a "Mathew Parris": ie; see what the other columnists say, then take the contrary view
I'm prepared to accept that car crime and burglaries are down, but people are more concerned with low level violence and intimidation on the street -after school and weekends.

john, Guildford,

I welcome some sense from the right at last - prison 'works' but crime is forever 'rising' makes no sense at all, but it is all we have heard.

Latest research shows that crime has fallen everywhere regardless of the system used, harsh or liberal. In which case why do we spend so much on prison?

Mike Murray, Bath,

Europe went one, as a social unit, the UK went another socially and ended up getting lost.

Mark, Yorkshire,

Crime is generally falling across the West for reasons that are not yet clear and with different countries using different approaches to crime. It is characteristic of right leaning commentary to sieze on the simplest, harshest explanation that might fit the facts.

Hugh Riddle, Littlestone, UK

Also, didn't the Freakonomics guys correlate falling crime in New York with the changes in the abortion laws? I think they argued the broken windows theory was icing on an economic cake...

Oh, and "Palestine is a good example for tougher sentences working." Josie Goldstein. Hmm. Not so much.

Richard, London,

Overall crime may have fallen but the crimes people worry most about are rising. The stats are seriously flawed if they will only record a handful of the recent spate of teenage murders simply because of the victims age.

By all means have alternatives to prison.....where they work!

Luke, London, UK

I think I read (in Freakonomics or similar) that the the USA decrease was due to the relaxing of abortion laws in 1972. Crudely put, the criminals weren't born. Perhaps I'm wrong or maybe the drop in NYC was greater than in the rest of the USA. Does anybody know?

Jonathan Bagley, manchester, uk

To the reader who feels there is no offending in prison - this is a truly naive position. Further, research upon either re-offending or reconviction rates constantly shows that prison does not deter in sufficient numbers to use it as a blunt instrument

Dave, Mansfield, UK

Part of the problem is exemplified by violent crime stats. Violence is down by some 14%, but serious violence is up by 30%. So petty violence is falling while more people are being seriously injured. That does a lot to explain the public's perceptions.

Dirk Bruere, Bedford, England

Prison only works in the short term. Our prison population has doubled since 1993. We cannot allow it to grow indefinitely. Especially as 2/3 of prisoners reoffend within 2 years of release. Prison masks the underlying problem; it does not solve it.

Sam, Oxford,

Have you any idea what crime is!!!? You have got a virus rampaging round government computers. People giving money to Nigerian tricksters.Mafias,triads traffickers drug cheaper than ever because criminals so successful. One man in prison had 100s of mobile calls organised murder whole gang acquitted

ged, manchester,

I work within the criminal justice system and I see on a daily basis the 'falling' level of crime. I personally think that crime is not falling, if it were, then surely the amount of work that comes through our office would be falling as well. It isn't.

Mike Allen, Birmingham, Englands

You may be telling the truth but I don't believe you.

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."

m collins, Leeds,

Daniel - If you walked in London you'll know that law and order HAS broken down. The public will no longer ask someone to take his shoes off the seat, ask a cyclist to get off the pavement, remonstrate at vandalism on buses, or go to help someone attacked. We cross the road near a cluster of youths

christina Speight, london, UK

You are naive David. The really big time crimes never get to see daylight: it involves politicians, oligarchs, big timers. This is not a conspiracy theory. We are at the bottom of the pile & have to put up with petty crime.

ian cheese, london , uk

The BCS is a " statistically valid review"? Horseshit. It is exactly what Finkelstein claims it is not: a collection of anecdotes.
Check the Met's own numbers for crime against the person here: http://www.met.police.uk/crimestatistics/index.htm. 10% pa increase in the last 3 years.

Mark, London,

There would be many more crime statistics if people like me tackled the anti-social behaviour we see in the street but because we know we'd be assaulted if we did, we ignore the crime. That doesn't mean we don't know that criminal behaviour is rife.

Tam Earl-Aine, Cheltenham,

Any set of crime stats is flawed if it is not corrected for demographic changes. Most crimes are committed by young males; if the proportion of these in society changes so will crime levels.

RR, Harrow,

We are beating crime? Your having a laugh. Most people don't bother reporting crimes anymore because the police will do nothing about them. The deterioration on the streets of London has been marked and apalling. Anybody who believes the lies told by the home office needs their head checked.

Magnus Mathewson, London,

The crime statistics are flawed.
It is suggested that the figures for burglary have dropped. In reality the police have given up on this crime. Victims do not report it. If they do an officer will come round three days later to tell them that nothing can be done and that it is all there own fault

Stephen Green, Correns, France

It would be hard to put up a realistic argument against more policing and tougher sentences not being the answer to reducing crime. But unfortunately the liberals in society will always Say it does not work because criminals reoffend.

They cannot reoffend when locked up! Doh!

D Case, Newquay,

Of course one reason people's "perception" that crime is rising might be due to the relentless daily bulletins we witness in the tabloid press. When we had sharp rises in crime in the 80s the Daily Mail and others didn't bother telling us about this because we had a Conservative government.

Matthew Blott, Harlow Town, Essex

the people that call for prison to be tougher are Reading the papers and believing the hype.prisons are not holiday camps but places of fear and hate.they are factories of hate and the tougher they are the more hate they create.when released all that hate is released on society.wake up to the truth.

Kevin, London, England

Zero tolerance seems to be a mindset thing. A NY friend, arrested for binning a newspaper, remembering an article he wanted and fishing it out again, just laughed at his own stupidity. Brits (well, Times columnists) given speeding or parking tickets rant on and on about how unfair it all is.

Ian Kemmish, Biggleswade, UK

The most stupid article you have written Daniel. For a start why do we need a think tank to tell us what we already know eg: we should not tolerate any crime. Secondly bringing this down to a left or right issue is plain supid. If you are an example of a modern thinker then bring on the labotomies.

JT, Stortford, UK

Prison - yes, good - doesn't cure people but keeps them off the street. BUT big failure is in mental health - people with mental health problems need secure detention but probably not in prison as some may be helped.

Richard, Newton Abbot,

I have just come back from 2 weeks in New York -noone messes with police officers there, they are the law. No talking back, no attacking them as occurred in London when asked to pick up litter-explain that!). Finally, there are lots of them -they're everywhere, so they're preventitive, unlike here

ted, london, uk

Crime deterrence will only have an full effect when the punishment fits the crime committed - The judges or the sentencing recommendations that they must adhere to is unexceptabily lame - More jails should be constructed and prison life should be more basic and laborious for those incarcerated -

WTaylor, London, UK

On this basis if I borrowed money I'd be rich, until I had to pay it back that is.
Prison, especially for minor offenses simply locks vulnerable and impressionable people together with serious criminals. When they are released we will have to pay up our borrowed peace. Rehabilitation works.

Roger, London, UK

Giving short sentences and then letting people out early is not right wing policy. I am sure Mr Howard does not support the blinkered high tolerance to criminality rife in our courts. Don't confuse socialist bilge with any desire to actually drive down crime.

David Thijm, Stourbridge, UK

This analysis assumes that it is government intervention, rather than (for example) economic change, which had an effect. The argument is based on a correlation not necessarily causation.

Incidentally, I suspect that criminologists had heard about 'broken windows' before 'little think tanks'!

John Scott, London,

Palestine is a good example for tougher sentences working. When terrorists there threaten Israel, reprisals are quick and effective. Incarcerations without trial, rubber bullets to the legs and shoulders, freezing of funds...etc. Mr Finkelstein article therefore must be applauded.

Josie Goldstein, Watford,

No it isn't.

Jon, Kettering, UK

You must take the luxuries away from prisoners. No smoking, no newspapers, no telephones, no TVs, no books, just total boredom.10 years of that and they won't want to go back.

m wilson, bidache, france

the period from 1995 has been one of sustained and continued growth in the economy.

Are these studies at all adjusted for the impact of the economic cycle which surely must impact....positively or negatively depending on crime type.

If there is no adjustment is your conclusion valid?

tt, london,

Rubbish. The reason overall crime has fallen over the past 10 years is because of a boom economy. And yet violent crime has increased dramatically. Why should violent crime rise in a prosperous society? Because there is no deterrence - the system has failed. Michael Howard is a total irrelevance.

Steve, London,