Yule Heibel's Library tagged britain →  View Popular

Interesting article about the "dark figure" of crime:
QUOTE
The problem was first described in the 1830s by Adolphe Quetelet, a Belgian mathematician and sociologist and the founder of modern scientific statistics. The real crime rate, which he called the “dark figure of crime,” could not be revealed by official statistics, he argued: “Our observations can only refer to a certain number of known and tried offenders out of the unknown sum total of crimes committed. Since this sum total of crimes committed will probably ever continue unknown, all the reasoning of which it is the basis will be more or less defective.” The problem has plagued criminology for nearly two centuries.
UNQUOTE
The implication is that reports of falling (or rising, for that matter) crime rates aren't "objective," since they're based on "dark figures" which are unknown.

Interesting conclusion to the article, too:
QUOTE
The situation in Britain, then, resembles that of 1980s New York, whose crime problems were routinely called insoluble. What the British government fails to understand is that the majority of serious crimes are committed by a small cadre of criminals, who are also, disproportionately, the authors of minor crimes. If you lock these criminals up—reliably, and for a long time—crime will drop precipitously. The reason Broken Windows policing works is not that it is inherently important to jail every petty thug who breaks a window; it is that the window-breakers tend to be muggers, rapists, burglars, and murderers as well. If you get them off the streets, the rate of serious crime will fall.
UNQUOTE

www.city-journal.org/...19_2_british-crime.html - Preview

crime britain city_journal claire_berlinski dark_figure

Audio slideshow of Archigram:
"In the early 1960s, the avant-garde architectural group - Archigram - set out to find hypothetical ways of creating alternative buildings and cities for people to live and work in.

"Their ultra-modern visions drew inspiration from modular technology and early space capsules - as well as the natural environment."

news.bbc.co.uk/...7798086.stm - Preview

bbc archigram zaha_hadid peter_cook slideshow britain 1960s

- review of Gavin Stamp's "Britain's Lost Cities, an engrossing, no-punches-pulled denunciation of the wilful destruction of our urban landscape since the 1930s..."

entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/...article3050987.ece - Preview

architecture britain cities modernism redevelopment style urban_renewal