Forum Topic

Has Crime Really Got Worse in Ealing?

Was talking with a group of friends recently about crime particularly that in which teenagers are the victims. One of them whose children are now grown up and married having been to school in the area said she thought that people were getting a bit hysterical about the scale of the problem and being worked up into a frenzy by social media.Her view was that the problem was far worse over a decade ago. She said that was because mobile phones could be sold for more in real terms at that point and they didn't have the security features which can make them effectively worthless if stolen. She knew our family had a bad experience in this regard recently so wasn't being dismissive of how awful it can be for a child to go through this. Her point was that it is not a new thing and it is probably happening less than before we are just hearing about more cases.I'm all for appropriate warnings being issued and good advice on safety being generally available but I don't really see us or our children as being under siege from criminals. Is there actually any statistical evidence that thing are worse than they ever have been.

Tricia Arbuthnot ● 2187d17 Comments

I think the violence has increased with the reporting of it through social media increasing the awareness and sometimes the anxiety..  There is also an increased divide between the haves and have-nots - see the Deayton report.  Without the extra support of youth services which have been so cut there is not the same amount of back-up for hard-working families or anyone else.  A lot of parents are working but that does not mean that they have the money for all the extra clubs as less seems to be included nowadays eg music and sport.

Philippa Bond ● 2165d

One upmanship and flaunting the latest technology is unnecessary and asking for trouble.My name is Tommy:  (about 30 min)https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00055nyHow a difficult child with help and support turned his life around.  It is these children who often get into trouble.

Philippa Bond ● 2167d

Yes, good advice from Paul. You can get perfectly good reconditioned phones online and, if you don't want the latest generation you will pay less than £100 and still get a very high functioning device. Sim only contracts are so cheap now that you can also make huge savings on what you pay each month.

Gordon Southwell ● 2167d

Totally agree.

Mari Austin ● 2173d

My kids have always been given rubbish phones. This is a) because I am mean and b) because they don't understand the concept of a screen protector and will drop the phone within hours of purchase.The side benefit of my stinginess is that they weren't worth mugging. They do appear to be in the minority as most other parents of my generation report that their children were mugged. All our kids have now left school so this is not a new problem.A lot of cases were just unfortunate but a number of times the parents were complaining that it was worse because they had just given their child a new phone and had to claim it on insurance again as it was so expensive. My view is that if you are giving your child a phone that is worth insuring you are making them a target for muggers.

Paul Corcoran ● 2183d

Too many of the jobs available are these gig economy jobs with not enough pay to live on and have a decent work:life balance.Twice as many food parcels have been handed out by the food bank in Ealing this year than the year before.  A third to children.http://www.ealingtoday.co.uk/default.asp?section=info&page=eafoodbanks001.htmThere are jobs available and advertised in the NHS.  We are going to need a lot more nurses as we are coming up to a period when a lot will retire.  Fewer nurses are being trained.  In the past they were given bursaries and accommodation.  So we end up without our own workforce and having to recruit overseas instead of the jobs going to our own trained nurses.

Philippa Bond ● 2184d

I agree that there is not enough visible police presence.I also think that there is this problem with bling and high tech gadgets and logo clothing being advertised and displayed on TV, films and worn in the street.  It used to just be logo trainers...  but now it is much more expensive stuff even than those.When I left school there was little chance of not getting a job but a lot of the jobs have now gone or changed.  Look how few people you see at the tills at the supermarket.  So many jobs are being mechanised.  I was watching an advertising film the other day for the building of high-rise flats and there were many fewer workers needed as the panels were made off-site in just a few sections and craned into place with the plastering already done.  l

Philippa Bond ● 2184d

The idea that the statistics are manipulated and therefore can be discounted doesn't stand up to any scrutiny. The way the police collect and publish data is externally monitored and although there may be flaws in methodology they remain consistent so the broad trend of what is happening is identifiable. What they tell us is quite interesting and complex — crime had been steadily falling for quite some time but that trend seems to have reversed recently. However robberies have actually been falling in some parts of London so this is an Ealing specific problem however, social media hysteria is clearly playing a part in making the problem seem worse than it actually is. People have been blaming rising crime on the inadequacy of the character of young people since antiquity and every generation things the next one is deficient.  The problems we are experiencing currently is almost certainly down to there being fewer police officers in London.

Gordon Southwell ● 2184d

Couldn't agree with you more Mr Goodman.Yer right on the money.  :-)

Rosco White ● 2185d

Have to disagree on this “have and have nots” angleSome use this to almost justify robbery etc - not that you are - as well as an underlying cause.It’s not.I also disagree that mugging is to feed drug habits although drugs inevitably are a driving factor on all crime The sad fact is we now have a couple of generations who have a complete sense of automatic entitlement and who are driven by the thirst for trinkets, status and bling but simply don’t accept the need to put in some hard yards. I also accept that holistic view that the issues of crime are complex and multi layered from a dumbing down of standards so everyone feels “included”, kids having kids, dilution of law and order, immigration, modern day fast pace and on and on and on.What’s the answer? Got to be a holistic approach but I’m afraid we’re too far gone here now and too lefty / liberal to accept the huge clampdown that’s needed.

Colin Goodman ● 2185d

It's worth remembering, that at least as far as policing is concerned, broken windows theory has been largely debunked as not being a useful strategy for some time now e.g.-- https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/the-problem-with-broken-windows-policing/- https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2014/12/broken-windows-policing-doesnt-work-it-also-may-have-killed-eric-garner.html- https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/2016/07/20/broken-windows-is-broken-study-shows-that-a-more-focused-approach-to-tackling-street-violence-can-be-more-effective/

Chris Gilson ● 2186d

Great replies.  Yes 30 years ago we had the muggings and because of social media we hear more about them faster. The perpetrators can be identified faster.  They too can communicate faster.  The whole pace of life is faster.  So it does become more hysterical and the violence greater.A greater division between the haves and have-nots exacerbates this situation especially when the have-nots are struggling for the basics in life. The reduction in police and services has allowed the gangs to proliferate.  Parents struggling to provide find it harder to supervise their children.  The temptations to take shortcuts presumably grow when jpb aspirations seem to be fame, fortune and easy money.Really agree about the broken windows theory and how we can do a lot for ourselves as a community if we can find time...

Philippa Bond ● 2186d

Your thread title asks a basic question and there is a basic answer to “has crime really got worse in Ealing?”YESForget statistics about muggings, in fact forget published figures all together as these can and are manipulated by the authorities to prove that reducing police numbers has had no effect.If you live here just open your eyes and ears when you walk around; pay attention to the amount of low level crime that’s seemingly tolerated these days - fly tipping; graffiti, street begging, pavement fouling, vandalism etc, etc. I believe strongly in former NYC mayor Juliano’s “broken window” theory and this perceived low level crime breeds more crime and more serious crime.Talk to the rank and file local police officers, those that are left, and see what they tell you on crime levels or the more violent nature of them. They may tell how the criminal fraternity now feel a level of almost impunity and how police morale is on its arse. They may tell you how crimes are these days being perpetrated by kids previously viewed as “below the criminal age of consent” and pretty serious crimes at that, these aren’t publicly recorded. They may even moan to you about the do-gooders ensuring that habitual young offenders aren’t criminalised and are given countless second chances and simply laugh at authorities whilst gaining a misplaced confidence that they are the next Al Capone.Are your kids able to socialise without too much fear the way we were 3 or 4 decades ago? Are you able to walk about at night confidently? Do you have faith in the justice system to clamp down and be a deterrent?The frightening thing on a wider view is that Ealing is far safer than many London areas. Whatever you do, don’t ask the same question to people in areas of Barnet, Hackney, Enfield etc, etcAnyone who answers your question in the title as NO has no idea about what is actually going on out there at the moment in my humble opinion

Colin Goodman ● 2186d

That your guess is right is confirmed by this very good report that appeared on this site at the end of last year. At that point there was no general rise in robberies in London but a clear indication that some boroughs were suffering displacement due to a clampdown in other areas. There doesn't seem to have been a single expression of concern from our local council or our MPs about this report.They seem to be willing to accept the Met's tactic of exporting crime to this borough. Shocking.

Gordon Southwell ● 2186d

You can find crime stats for personal robbery in Ealing since 2010 here if you can navigate through the menu options on the top left of the page: https://www.met.police.uk/sd/stats-and-data/met/crime-data-dashboard/. Overall crime, and robbery of personal property (mobile phone theft does not seem to be separately identified) have increased recently but are in fact roughly back to 2011 levels. I'd hazard a guess that the clampdown on moped based thefts in central London may have pushed some criminals to move to easier pickings in the suburbs.

Vlod Barchuk ● 2187d

The logic is sound but it might be a bit of a stretch to say the problem was worse over a decade ago. It is around 10 years since smartphones started to become prevalent and only more recently that children have started to have them. When they first came out it was relatively simple to reset a stolen phone and put it on eBay for sale for a high price. This meant that stealing phones was very lucrative and about 7 or 8 years ago when the iPhone 4 was becoming ubiquitous there was a bonanza for thieves. Since then phones have been made more secure and people have become more conscious of security. You can still make use of a stolen phone if you know what you are doing but you can't just stick it on eBay so what people are willing to pay for stolen phones has fallen and so, up until recently had robberies of teens. This is partly offset by parents giving their kids very expensive latest generation phones. Many don't seem to understand that they are giving their child kit worth a few hundred pounds to carry around. Some seem determined to advertise this by wearing Apple earbuds. Because most phones are effectively bought on HP through a contract people are unaware of how expensive they are.  Robbers are attracted to Ealing because kids here will have more expensive phones than other areas. My advice would be to put your child on a sim only contract and give them a very basic smartphone

Gordon Southwell ● 2187d

Not sure I understand your friends logic here, most theft/muggings IS for mobile phones. Still.

Rosco White ● 2187d