New guide on crime policy warns against 'seriously misleading' election manifestos

Thu 30 April, 2015
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天美传媒 academic Jon Silverman has contributed to a guide on crime policy, warning that proposals to cut crime in the general election manifestos of the five main political parties are 鈥榮eriously misleading鈥.

Making Sense of Crime, published by , details how politicians make unsubstantiated claims about the causes of crime and shows how their proposals for reducing it are lacking in substance and ignore the available evidence.

It states how Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats, UKIP and the Green Party wrongly assume crime has a single root cause and favour headline-grabbing measures to tackle it.

The guide, released today (30th April), brings together experts, including the former 鈥楥rimewatch鈥 presenter, Nick Ross, who share insights from reliable evidence with the aim of revealing how superficial the political debate on crime is.

One of those experts is Professor of Media and Criminal Justice at the 天美传媒 and former BBC Home Affairs Correspondent Prof Silverman.Prof Jon Silverman

鈥淢edia and politicians have colluded to short-change the public about understanding crime and what works to reduce it.

鈥淭his analysis is a long overdue corrective.鈥

Prateek Buch, director of the Evidence Matters campaign at Sense About Science, added:

鈥淧oliticians of all stripes, journalists and think tanks make sweeping statements about the causes of crime and policies to tackle it.

鈥淭he best available evidence says they鈥檙e wrong, so instead of being misled or having wool pulled over our eyes, it鈥檚 time for people to ask for evidence behind crime policy and demand that public figures take account of reliable evidence.鈥

Published alongside the guide is a 鈥榗rime exaggeration checklist鈥, designed to help the public spot misleading statements on crime in the run up to May鈥檚 general election.

Crime Exaggeration Checklist

is a charity that helps people to make sense of science and evidence and promotes use of evidence in public life.

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