ABSTRACT
The likelihood is that you have committed a crime. Probably lots of them. A recent survey found that the average person committed a crime once a day. Of course, most of these are relatively minor ones such as littering or parking offences. Others such as speeding or using a mobile phone while driving may be regarded as trivial by some, but breach of them can lead to death. Nine per cent of all men aged eighteen were found guilty of, or cautioned for, an indictable offence in 1997-98. An indictable offence is one that can be tried in the Crown court, which means it is a serious offence, usually carrying a sentence of imprisonment. Of course, many more such offences will have been committed by eighteenyear-olds who were not caught. It probably won’t surprise you that the percentage of eighteen-year-old women who committed an offence was far less. Of course, we cannot know for sure what the statistics are for offences where the person is not caught by the police. It seems in a given year 33 per cent of young men and 21 per cent of young women use illegal drugs, but few of them reach the courts. So, given the likelihood that you have committed an offence, or
are likely to be convicted of an offence, it may be a good idea to read this book carefully! Let us look a bit more at some of the statistics about crimes.
