Pubdate: Thu, 02 Dec 2010 Source: Oceanside Star (BC) Copyright: 2010 Oceanside Star Contact: http://www.canada.com/oceansidestar/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4880 Author: Craig Brett U.S. CRIME RATES ARE ALSO DECLINING THE EDITOR: Re: 'Crime is down; we don't need more police,' (Nov. 25). I want to thank criminologist John Anderson for bringing his experience to the letters forum, particularly his support for the "dry numerical data" rather than the vivid and misleading stories he says are told by the police. Crime is down, he says, so Canada shouldn't pursue the "failed experiment" with stiffer sentencing that was done in the U.S. Well, shall we take a look at that dry data? According to the FBI, violent crime in the U.S. fell for the third-straight year in 2009, continuing a decline that has seen the murder rate cut in half since 1990. The homicide rate in New York is the lowest since figures were first kept in the 1960s. Also last year, property crime fell 4.6%, vehicle theft by 17.1% and burglary by 1.3%. And this is during a recession in which economic hardship is supposed to increase criminal activity. So, how do we reconcile Mr. Anderson's insistence that we look at the data, with his completely backward description of crime in the U.S.? Probably the same way we reconcile his insistence that Canada doesn't need more prison capacity even as the drug trade became BC's second-largest industry, Vancouver emerged as an international hub for money laundering and a proliferation of gangs led The Economist magazine to state that little old Vancouver has the highest concentration of gangs in the world. Craig Brett, Qualicum Beach - --- MAP posted-by: Matt