Crime
Bomb attacks are now a normal part of Swedish life
Stockholm One night last week, explosions took place in three different locations in and around Stockholm. There were no injuries…
Is hate crime really on the rise?
The Guardian ran a story on its website today headlined: ‘Hate crimes doubled in England and Wales in five years.’…
How many Britons now vape?
Talking Turkey David Cameron again accused the Leave campaign of ‘lying’ about the prospect of Turkey joining the EU. A…
A gang of sheep rustlers is stalking the county – who will be the next target?
Though autumn is happily still some way off, we’ve already reached that stage in the shepherd’s calendar when full-grown lambs…
Capers in crime: Life for Sale, by Yukio Mishima, reviewed
Few biographies are quite as impressive as Yukio Mishima’s. One of Japan’s most famous authors, he wrote 80 plays and…
Racist incidents are down since Trump’s election. Yes, really
The election of Donald Trump has, of course, unleashed the latent racist which lurks within millions of Americans. We know…
Rape has become dangerously politicised
It is more than three years since the town of Tisdale, Saskatchewan, decided to ditch its motto ‘Land of Rape…
As a QC, I believe the time has come to legalise drugs
I have been a defence lawyer for more than 25 years. I have defended clients charged with almost every crime…
Can you really teach students to solve knife crime?
Next year the London Interdisciplinary School (LIS) will offer one degree, in design, technology and the humanities, to teach students…
True crime has never been more popular, but it often forgets the families left behind
I’ve talked to Denise Horvath-Allan more than my own mother this year. Denise’s son Charles went missing while backpacking in…
Where would we be without crime’s heavies? Muscle, by Alan Trotter, reviewed
Let’s hear it for the heavies, the unsung heroes of noir crime fiction on page and screen. The genre would…
Pirates of the Caribbean: How Venezuela’s near collapse is causing a crisis on the seas
Brian Austin, a fisherman from the small village of Cedros in Trinidad, is struggling to describe the men who robbed…
How did the BBC’s podcast Unexpected Fluids ever get made?
You may have noticed the flood of podcasts that’s been pouring out of the BBC since the launch of its…
Shades of Lord Lucan: A Double Life, by Flynn Berry, reviewed
A young girl finds the body of her nanny, brutally murdered, and the barely moving form of her mother, a…
When does a murderer become a madman?
There was no reason for Edward Drummond to believe this January day was going to be different to any other…
The Victorian melodrama that led to murder and mayhem
Early on the morning of 6 May 1840, a young housemaid in a respectable Mayfair street discovered that her master,…
The cruel end of Emmanuel Barthélemy –as a waxwork in the Chamber of Horrors
This is a biography that begins with a bang, swiftly followed by puddles of blood, shrieks of ‘Murder!’ and a…
The DPP’s Alison Saunders was never much cop
An interesting development for our police force, then. In future they do not have to believe everything someone tells them,…
Sadiq Khan is a lousy London Mayor. Why hasn’t anyone noticed?
According to people at City Hall, Sadiq Khan writes some of his own press releases. I can believe it: they’ve…
The Tories are risking their reputation as the party of law and order
Theresa May’s Home Office record is normally off limits at cabinet. But when ministers discussed the government’s strategy for reducing…
Stop and search is our best weapon in the fight against crime
According to the latest recorded crime figures in England and Wales, there has been a steep rise in violence. Knife…
Violent crime in Sweden is soaring. When will politicians act?
January was a particularly violent month in Sweden. A 63-year-old man was killed in Stockholm by a hand grenade lying…
Parole is unfair and unworkable. Let’s abolish it
The furore over the parole granted to John Worboys, the rapist taxi driver, misses the point entirely — that the…
Goodbye London, Reykjavik here I come
I have a message for the London mayor, Sadiq Khan: you and your policies stink! While the fuzz are busy…
Made in Port Talbot
Port Talbot, on the coast of South Wales, is literally overlooked. Most experience the town while flying over it on…
