Your paper's Crime in the Community series is really good, so keep it up. However, I was disappointed to see the alarmist and ridiculous claim that juvenile arrests have rocketed by 30 per cent over the past ten years (The Argus, March 17).
A closer look at the statistics suggests they have not. Anyone who has paid even slight attention to crime statistics over the past ten years would know that new counting rules in 1998 and a new recording standard in 2002 have massively increased the volume of crime recorded by our police.
Comparing 1995 with now on that basis is nonsensical, and a closer look at the statistics suggests youth crime (like other crime) has actually fallen considerably in many respects over this period.
Crime is a problem wherever it occurs. But do not try to suggest it is ever worse when it isn't, or that our children are any worse than they were in the past when all the evidence suggests they are not. In the vast majority of cases they continue to make us proud.
- J Simmons, Elm Grove, Brighton
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