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A late summer's night In a road in Stoke Newington. It's not quite
dark. A man Is walking down from Church Street when another, younger man confront&
him, kicks him on the thigh, pulls a knife and threatens to 'stick this In your belly' If
money Is not handed over. The victim shouts, an upstairs window is opened in a nearby
house, the resident leans out and says he's calling the police. The assailant, by now
extremely agitated and waving the knife, swears and runs away. Nothing Is taken, nobody Is
really hurt The police arrive half an hour later Just another street crime.
For me, an unpleasant experience, but how typical of life in Stoke Newington? N16 decided
to see whether we could get anywhere near the truth about the amount and nature of street
crime in the area. The first thing one realises is that there is a huge difference between
headlines and the official statistics.
The Guardian October 2001: 'Largest fall in
crime for 20 years. The crime rate fell by 20 per cent last year, with the chance of
becoming a victim now the lowest for more than 20 years, according to the authoritative
2001 British Crime Survey.'
The Hackney Gazette January 2002: 'Gun terror rocked Hackney
again this week with two shootings and three armed robberies in just four days. The crime
spree frightened residents still reeling in the wake of a double murder on New Year's
Day.'
The Evening Standard February 2002: 'Only one in eight muggers
caught in London.'
Hackney's Crime and Disorder Audit 1999/ 2001: 'Crime is going
down in Hackney. We have a well-established and successful Crime and Disorder Reduction
Partnership. Consequently, the borough has seen reductions in many crimes over the past
period. Overall there has been a reduction in crime levels of 2 per cent.'
The language is very different and is used, possibly deliberately, to give different
impressions. The purple prose of the Gazette, familiar to regular readers, contrasts
sharply with the bland words of the joint audit from the Metropolitan Police and Hackney
Council. The former needs to sell papers, the latter to reassure residents. In fact, there
are between 10 and 12 murders each year in Hackney. About 52 per cent of violent offences
take place in private premises, not on the streets. For those directly affected by violent
crime words like 'terror' and 'reeling' are appropriate, but can these feelings be applied
accurately to residents across the borough?
The fear of crime in Hackney is however, very real. A public attitude survey showed that
two-thirds of respondents felt threatened by crime. Dalston, Clapton and Hackney Central
were the areas of most concern. Perhaps surprisingly, burglary (52 per cent) was the crime
most people would like the police to tackle, just ahead of street robbery (47 per cent).
An ex-policeman has been appointed as Borough Burglary Reduction Officer after his success
in reducing this crime in De Beauvoir. Stoke Newington does not lead the rest of Hackney
in any category of crime, although it does have a high level of the relatively harmless
offence of motor vehicle theft, especially in Clissold ward.
Street crime is broken down into three categories: robbery, snatch and pickpocketing.
Robbery is when the victim is threatened or suffers violence ('mugging'); snatch is,
typically, a mobile phone or handbag snatched suddenly in the street and when no violence
occurs. Pickpocketing is theft from the person, usually in crowded places such as Oxford
Street. Handbags stolen in pubs, which, at least anecdotally, seems to occur quite often
in Stoke Newington, is not classed as street crime.
Faced with conflicting views and impressions, it seemed logical to go and talk to two
experts. Chief Superintendent Peter Robbins was until recently the Borough Commander of
Hackney Police and an experienced practitioner in the field of crime prevention. |
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