By punter99 - 2 Jul 22 10:45 AM
With yet another MP in the news, accused of sexual misconduct, I thought I would do a bit of digging into the numbers.
There are about 67,000 SO, on the register in the UK, out of a population of 67 million. That means there is approximately one SO, for every 1,000 people, in the general population. But what about the MPs who created the register and the police who enforce it?
According to recent figures, there were 251 officers in the Met police under investigation for sexual offences, out of 34,000. That is one in every 135, nearly ten times as many per head, as the general population. MPs are no better. 5 out of 651 are under investigation, which is one SO for every 130 MPs.
But the worst by far, are Greater Manchester Police with 158 SO, out of just 7,000 officers. That is one SO for every 44 serving officers.
Six police forces, including the Met and GMP are now in special measures.
So how does this compare with say, the teaching profession? You might imagine that teachers are particularly at risk, given that they have access to children, but there were just 275 facing investigation for sexual misconduct, out of a total of 625,000. That is only one in every 2,000, which is less than half the rate in the general population.
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By punter99 - 11 Jul 22 2:53 PM
+x+xWith yet another MP in the news, accused of sexual misconduct, I thought I would do a bit of digging into the numbers. There are about 67,000 SO, on the register in the UK, out of a population of 67 million. That means there is approximately one SO, for every 1,000 people, in the general population. But what about the MPs who created the register and the police who enforce it? According to recent figures, there were 251 officers in the Met police under investigation for sexual offences, out of 34,000. That is one in every 135, nearly ten times as many per head, as the general population. MPs are no better. 5 out of 651 are under investigation, which is one SO for every 130 MPs. But the worst by far, are Greater Manchester Police with 158 SO, out of just 7,000 officers. That is one SO for every 44 serving officers. Six police forces, including the Met and GMP are now in special measures. So how does this compare with say, the teaching profession? You might imagine that teachers are particularly at risk, given that they have access to children, but there were just 275 facing investigation for sexual misconduct, out of a total of 625,000. That is only one in every 2,000, which is less than half the rate in the general population. The only point I'd like to make here is that you seem to be assuming that everyone under investigation is guilty. That's what certain media outlets want everyone to believe about SO's, but it isn't necessarily true, is it? It might not be easy to get hold of the numbers in those groups who have actually been convicted (or cautioned), but that would be a better comparison. As you say, teachers are particularly at risk, not least from false or malicious allegations, but once again it should come down to how many have actually been convicted or cautioned, not just arrested. I'm not sure whether it's relevant to this discussion whether a police force is in special measures, unless they're letting people commit offences on their work computers.
It's generally agreed, that the number of sexual offences in society, is probably under reported, rather than over reported, so the ones that were recorded as an allegation still matter, even if not all will be convicted. Then there is the problem, that many allegations don't result in a conviction, because of the victim refusing to give evidence, or the CPS dropping the case, because the victim is seen as 'unreliable' (e.g. the Rochdale/Rotherham grooming cases). With police, there is the additional problem, of the police closing ranks to protect each other, plus their use of early retirement, as a way to avoid an embarrassing disciplinary hearing. This also skews the conviction figures and makes things appear much better than they really are.
As for police forces being placed in special measures, this is relevant, to some extent, because of some of the reasons relate to a toxic culture within policing, that goes beyond a few 'bad apples'. If we take the Met for example.
'HMIC cited a series of scandals: from the murder of Sarah Everard by the serving Met officer Wayne Couzens; the strip-searching of innocent children such as Child Q; stop and search controversies such as that of the champion athlete Bianca Williams; and grossly offensive attitudes among officials revealed by messages exchanged between officers at Charing Cross police station. The force that considers itself a leader in law enforcement was told in the letter there were concerns about “a persistently large backlog of online child abuse referrals”.
The Met and probably the 5 other forces, that are in special measures, seem to have a problem, with employing a much greater percentage of bad apples, than most other professions.
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