Saturday 01 November 2003
Topline Results
- Results are based on 2,154 face-to-face interviews across Great Britain
- Data are weighted by age, sex, working status, area, urbanity and ethnicity
- Fieldwork was conducted between 6-10 November 2003
- Where results do not sum to 100, this may be due to multiple responses, computer rounding or the exclusion of don't knows/not stated
- Results are based on all respondents unless otherwise stated
- Results from 2001 are based on 2,053 interviews
- An asterisk (*) represents a value of less than one half or one percent, but not zero
Q1 Which two or three of these do you think would do most to reduce crime in Britain?
| | 2003 | 2001 |
|---|
| | % | % |
|---|
| Better parenting | 59 | 55 |
| More police on the beat | 55 | 53 |
| Better discipline in schools | 45 | 49 |
| More constructive activities for young people | 41 | 40 |
| More effective programmes to change behaviour | 27 | 21 |
| Capital punishment for murder | 23 | 20 |
| Introducing a national identity card | 19 | 29 |
| More offenders in prison | 10 | 8 |
| Other | 2 | 1 |
| None of the above | 1 | 1 |
| Don't know | 0 | 1 |
Q2 To what extent do you agree or disagree with the statement "Most people come out of prison worse than they go in".
| | 2003 | 2001 |
|---|
| | % | % |
|---|
| Strongly agree | 13 | 16 |
| Tend to agree | 35 | 37 |
| Neither agree or disagree | 30 | 25 |
| Tend to disagree | 13 | 12 |
| Strongly disagree | 3 | 2 |
| Don't know | 7 | 9 |
Q3 Looking at these options, by approximately how much, if anything, do you think the number of people in prisons in Britain has changed since 10 years ago?
| | % |
|---|
| 50% or less now than 10 years ago | 1 |
| 40% less | 1 |
| 30% less | 2 |
| 20% less | 2 |
| Up to 10% less | 2 |
| About the same as 10 years ago | 5 |
| Up to 10% more | 8 |
| 20% more | 18 |
| 30% more | 23 |
| 40% more | 13 |
| 50% or more now than 10 years ago | 15 |
| Don't Know | 11 |
Q4 And approximately how many men in Britain do you think have at least one criminal conviction by the time they reach 40? Do you think it is …
| | % |
|---|
| Less than one in five | 20 |
| One in five (a fifth) | 31 |
| One in four (a quarter) | 14 |
| One in three (a third) | 13 |
| One in two (a half) | 4 |
| More than half | 6 |
| Don't know | 12 |
Q5 Which one or two of these measures would you most prefer to be used to deal with prison overcrowding?
| | % |
|---|
| Build more residential centres so that drug addicted offenders can receive treatment | 52 |
| Develop tougher community punishments | 52 |
| Release more offenders early with electronic tags to monitor their whereabouts | 28 |
| Build more prisons | 27 |
| Other | 2 |
| None of these | 1 |
| Don't know | 3 |