We’re safer today from crime than we were 30 years ago – so why don’t people feel it?

25th July 2025Patrick Olajide, National Centre for Social Research

Despite the fall in crime rates overall in Britain, the continuing public perception is one of an increasingly lawless country; Patrick Olajide, a Senior Researcher in Crime, Justice and Security at the National Centre for Social Research, believes those fears are being fuelled by traditional news media outlets painting an incomplete, distorted and – at worst – dishonest picture of crime and justice in the UK, which has a damaging impact both on communities and those working within the criminal justice system.

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We’re safer today from crime than we were 30 years ago – so why don’t people feel it?

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