The established evidence on which the assertion is based, however, is fairly ropey - and far from open to public scrutiny. When asked to amplify, Sir Paul has said variously that 70 or 80 per cent of muggings are carried out by blacks, his figures coming from a survey, the full details of which Scotland Yard has refused to release. The figures are based on victims' reports of the colour of their attacker - which begs questions about who you describe as "black"
Other big cities do not have racially related figures, or if the police do collect them, they do not release them. But in Newcastle and Glasgow, cities with few blacks, mugging is a white offence. It is also largely a crime of inner cities. Professor Young has argued: "Street robbery is the most amateurish crime and therefore likely to be committed by the poorest people. While they are likely to be black in London, they will almost certainly be white in Newcastle." So, it's not a racially related offence? No. Again, the statistics, like so many crime statistics, are not good. But the 1987 and 1991 British Crime Surveys suggest - on a tiny sample - that, nationally, most muggings are white on white or black on black.
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