# Getting tough on crime: rates halved in weeks! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 27, 2014, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-tough-on-crime-rates-halved-in-weeks/684661 "2014-03-27T02:54:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-tough-on-crime-rates-halved-in-weeks/684661/1 "2014-03-27T02:54:45Z")
A major regional city in Victoria, Geelong, has seen its burglary-rate virtually halved in recent weeks. Better policing, zero tolerance, community crime-stoppers you ask? [Not quite](http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/news/geelong-burglaries-drop-significantly-following-arrest/story-fnjuhxh0-1226865712469) 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Weedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/weedy/32/301_2.png) [@Weedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weedy)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-tough-on-crime-rates-halved-in-weeks/684661/2 "2014-03-27T03:43:55Z")
They just need to find the other guy doing the other 30/week and they’ll be set. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-tough-on-crime-rates-halved-in-weeks/684661/3 "2014-03-27T05:10:22Z")
You just know that guy is proudly repeating those statistics to everyone in the [del]jail[/del] gaol, too. ---
**Author:** ![yellowjacketcoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4bbf92/32.png) [@yellowjacketcoder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowjacketcoder)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-tough-on-crime-rates-halved-in-weeks/684661/4 "2014-03-27T14:06:57Z")
I wonder how much of crime is like that - the majority of cases causes by a minority of criminals. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-tough-on-crime-rates-halved-in-weeks/684661/5 "2014-03-27T14:37:13Z")
Gotta admire a man that dedicated to his work. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-tough-on-crime-rates-halved-in-weeks/684661/6 "2014-03-27T14:50:05Z")
> [@yellowjacketcoder](#): > > I wonder how much of crime is like that - the majority of cases causes by a minority of criminals. AFAICT, a lot. A disproportionate amount of crime is committed by a minority of criminals. ([Cite).](https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/publications/abstract.aspx?ID=73675). > [@](#): > > Federal estimates suggest that 6 percent of criminals commit 70 percent of crimes; half the people released from prisons are back within three years. [Cite.](http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2012/jun/27/career-criminals-plague-city/) Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-tough-on-crime-rates-halved-in-weeks/684661/7 "2014-03-27T16:26:46Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > AFAICT, a lot. A disproportionate amount of crime is committed by a minority of criminals. ([Cite).](https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/publications/abstract.aspx?ID=73675). > [Cite.](http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2012/jun/27/career-criminals-plague-city/) > > Regards, > Shodan Poster boy for this issue: [Man Robs Same NJ Store He Robbed 15 Years Earlier On Day After Release From Prison](http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/03/25/cop-man-robs-same-nj-store-he-robbed-15-years-earlier-on-day-after-release-from-prison/). ---
**Author:** ![Melchior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Melchior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melchior)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-tough-on-crime-rates-halved-in-weeks/684661/8 "2014-03-27T17:06:44Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > Poster boy for this issue: [Man Robs Same NJ Store He Robbed 15 Years Earlier On Day After Release From Prison](http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/03/25/cop-man-robs-same-nj-store-he-robbed-15-years-earlier-on-day-after-release-from-prison/). From Nietzsche, Dawn (_1881_): 366 The criminal’s sorrow — The criminal who has been apprehended does not suffer regret because of the crime he has perpetrated, but because of some humiliating blunder which he has committed, or because of his confinement in a lonely and unfamiliar cell, and keen discernment is necessary to distinguish one cause from another. Everyone who has had occasion to visit prisons or reformatories is astonished at how rarely one encounters genuine remorse among the inmates, and still more so at the longing shown by convicts to return to their old ways and haunts — to wickedness and a life in crime. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-tough-on-crime-rates-halved-in-weeks/684661/9 "2014-03-27T19:13:44Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > AFAICT, a lot. A disproportionate amount of crime is committed by a minority of criminals. It’s an aspect of the [Pareto Principle](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle). ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2014, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-tough-on-crime-rates-halved-in-weeks/684661/10 "2014-03-31T11:43:44Z")
One of the Chicago mayors a while back proudly boasted an election claim, during his past reign, he’d cut crime rates significantly. Turned out, he’d just re-defined violent crime (IIRC, taking armed robbery off the violent crime list.) ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2014, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-tough-on-crime-rates-halved-in-weeks/684661/11 "2014-03-31T11:52:57Z")
All the good criminal activity is in Geelong. [Alleged fine dodger denies his identity](http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/news/crime-court/alleged-fine-dodger-denies-his-identity/story-fnjuhoxe-1226867408321) \*A WARRANT has been issued for the arrest of a fine dodger after a man answering a summons in court denied being the person named in it. Gregory Francis was listed to appear in Geelong Magistrates’ Court yesterday to answer sheriff’s warrants for unpaid fines. When his name was called, a tall, long-haired, barefoot man sauntered into court and stood at the bar table. When asked by Magistrate John Lesser if he was Gregory Francis, he replied: “My mum told me never to talk to strangers, what is your name?” Mr Lesser repeated the question to which the man replied: “My title is Man.”\* ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-tough-on-crime-rates-halved-in-weeks/684661/12 "2014-04-01T06:09:02Z")
^ 😃