LSE Centre for Economic Performance: reducing crime: more police, more prisons or more pay?

Crime is usually high on the list of voter concerns. This might seem surprising since total crime has fallen significantly since the mid 1990s. Yet two thirds of the population still (wrongly) think that crime is rising nationally.Politicians must take account of the public’s false perception of increasing levels of crime, which seems to be sustained even in years when both recorded crime and victimisation surveys point to reductions in overall crime. This CEP Policy Analysis by Oliver Marie, describes crime trends and research evidence relevant to the post election policies. The publication is summarised below and can be found in full on the CEP Policy Analysis Site.