UK Peace Index highlights rate of fall in violent crime Rates of murder and violent crime have fallen more rapidly in the UK in the past decade than many other countries in Western Europe, researchers say.
The UK Peace Index <http://www.visionofhumanity.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/UK-Peace-Ind\ ex-2013-IEP-Report.pdf> , from the Institute for Economics and Peace, found UK homicides per 100,000 people had fallen from 1.99 in 2003, to one in 2012. The UK was more peaceful overall, it said, with the reasons for it varied. The index found Broadland, Norfolk, to be the most peaceful local council area but Lewisham, London, to be the least. The research by the international non-profit research organisation comes as a separate study by Cardiff University suggests the number of people treated in hospital in England and Wales after violent incidents fell by 14% in 2012 <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22269161> . Some 267,291 people required care - 40,706 fewer than in 2011 - according to a sample of 54 hospital units, its report said. BBC home editor Mark Easton called it the "riddle of peacefulness" and said the fall in violence was "perhaps a symptom of a new morality". "We are less tolerant of violence in all forms," our correspondent added. For its inaugural index, the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), which defined peace as "the absence of violence or fear of violence", used Home Office data on crime, such as public disorder offences and weapons crime, and police officer numbers. It found the violent crime rate was down by about one quarter - from 1,255 per 100,000 people in 2003, to 933 in 2012. This was a more rapid fall than the average decrease across western Europe for that period - although not more rapid than all other European countries, as was stated in earlier reports on the BBC News website. These reductions came despite a 6% drop in the number of police officers per 100,000 people, it said. "I do wonder whether the analysis is focusing on traditional social and criminal justice theories when the answer to the quite remarkable drop in violence may lie somewhere else entirely. Could it be that global communication is having a calming effect on people's behaviour?" - Mark Easton, Home Editor. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22275280 <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22275280>
