ACPO On Immigration.

ACPO, the Association of Chief Police Officers have issued a report claiming that there is no major increase in crime associated with immigration. This runs contrary to claims made by the Chief Constables of Cambridgeshire and Kent, it also makes the incarceration and nationality statistics look rather strange. It was conducted by the head of ACPO's race and diversity squad phoning detectives and community officers and asking them whether they believed that there was a connection between immigration and crime, as someone called 'Rob' puts it here:

'So, the Race and Diversity Stasi ring you up and ask you if you think crime is committed disproportionately by non-Britons. Given the insane attitude of the Police force towards race issues, it is a no brainer what the average copper would say. No Guv, everything's fine.'

Quite.

The other thing to consider is that crime is overwhelmingly committed by the young, and the peak age for impulsive and 'petty' crimes such as vandalism, shoplifting and the like is only in the mid teens, with more serious crimes most common in the early to mid 20s.

Seeing as immigrants are (I think) usually in their 20s and 30s and without teenage children it may be that the impact of immigration doesn't contribute very much to petty crimes that make up the bulk of all offences committed, whilst having a disproportionate impact on more serious crimes.

This comes back to something I have repeatedly criticised the pro-immigration lobby for, rather than arguing that the benefits of immigration outweigh the costs they just refuse to acknowledge that there are any costs to immigration.

Update: Inevitably the usual suspects have swallowed the ACPO report whole.

Update: Conservative immigration spokesman Damian Green claims "There is no evidence to suggest an immigrant is more likely to commit a crime than a UK citizen and it is, of course, wrong to suggest that immigrants are more likely to commit crimes". This is untrue, there is plenty of evidence, look at the prison stats. He appears to regard factual accuracy as taking second place to being in line with fashionable thinking.