Energetic Travellers
Gloucestershire Police claim that the jailing of five members of a family has reduced crime rates in the county to levels not seen since the 1980s, the Daily Mail reports online.
Last year five members of the Johnsons, a family of travellers, were jailed for a total of 50 years after a month-long trial at Reading Crown Court. They were said to have committed more than 100 crimes.
Since their arrest, says Gloucestershire Chief Constable Dr Timothy Brain, crime has plummeted. From 52,388 crimes in 2006-07, it fell to 45,685 in 2007-08, and 44,136 in 2008-09. This is a drop of more than 8,000 crimes in two years, so if the Johnsons were responsible they must have been committing more than ten a day - hardly likely, even in the wacky world of crime statistics. They went for antiques, but even wealthy Gloucestershire doesn't have that many bronze urns and satinwood inlaid cutlery boxes.
Still, it gave the Mail the opportunity to print their mugshots again.
Fiat Justitia (not verified) wrote,
Thu, 25/06/2009 - 08:45
The conviction of the the five individuals however, is not the whole story.
The Johnson family (a large extended family) is involved in crime of all types and at all levels in the Cheltenham area - from major robberies that get the headlines to minor assaults and shoplifting. Crime is a way of life for them.
They don't "go in for antiques" - they go in for anything. Your assumption that their activities are limited to the crimes that have made them famous is fallacious. The court reports in the Gloucestershire Echo feature members of the Johnson family every week.
Certainly, taking five individuals out of circulation cannot of itself be responsible for the reduction - as you accurately demonstrate - but it is at least moderately plausible to argue that their convictions have had a deterrent effect on other family members (more than a hundred, very active criminals of all ages).
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