19/06/2013 Newsnight Scotland

just a few years he's also been Tonight on Newsnight Scotland: This

week we learned crime has gone down here. But it's not just this year

and it's not just the UK. Why are crime rates dropping right across

the developed world even in the teeth of a recession?

And, when smart casual looks dumb. Are awkward world leaders or scruffy

doctors likely to make us wave It seems our society is getting more

peaceful. Recorded crime is dropping right across the US and Western

Europe and has been for around 20 years. The phenomenon is well

recognised, but less well understood with theories running from the

demise of lead piping to better car and home security. The other

conundrum is why, if crime is falling, does the fear of it

persist? In the year to the end of March about 273,000 crimes were

recorded by police in Scotland, that's 41,000 fewer than the year

before, a drop of 13%. That includes big falls in violent crime including

murder, attempted murder, and serious assault, down 21%. And in

incidents in handling offensive weapons, down 29%. Though the number

of sexual offences recorded went up by 5%, statisticians say changes to

how these are categorized might have affected the figures. Although I

regret we have an increase in sexual offences, I take out of that that

people are prepared to stand up and make sure those who perpetrated will

be treated to justice and we will make sure that we turn it in a down

wards direction. It is the lowest level of crime

recorded for 39 years. And it is not a one off, the trend has been

downward in Scotland for two decades. And that's mirrored in

other developed countries from England and Wales to Western Europe

and the United States. But why is it happening? Research in America

suggested a link between less exposure to - another theory that

more liberal abortion law in the United States led to fewer children

who are unwanted and who could be more prone to criminal behaviour.

Others suggest that it is down to better security in people's homes

and vehicles. More CC CTV on the screts and could consumer goods

becoming cheaper? The Scottish Government claims record numbers of

police officers are helping in the fight against crime.

violence reduction unit, Karyn ma clus bee and from Nottingham

university by Professor Tseloni. With the research that was funned

funned -- funded in England and Wales, we found that crime dropped

across most of the world using some data, international data set. Car

crime and burglary started falling first, since 1995 internationally

and then from 2000 violence started dropping as well. So violence across

the world that we have data dropped by 20%. Now, this is not across the

entire world. For instance, in Switzerland, violence actually

increased during that period because they deregulated the economy.

Sorry, I don't have much time. You don't think things like led in

petrol are responsible. -- lead in petrol are responsible. You think it

is more to do with policing or opportunities for crime? I think it

is more to do with opportunities for crime because this is how we can

explain the international crime fall whereas policing or criminal justice

responses are only restricted within a certain country and certainly

abortion regulation or deregular laltion was -- deregulation was

prevalent in the Netherlands, much before the US.

Right, so it could be things like, for example, simple things like it

is more difficult to break into a modern car than it was 20 years ago?

Exactly. Indeed. Our research has found that new and wide use of

technology in car protection, car crime prevention has actually

stopped car crime. At least car crime for joyriding. This as it used

to be a way into a life of crime if you like for a young lad, has

actually obstructed young people em embarking into a life of crime.

Does that figure with what your experience is? Listen, it is really

complex. It is an incredibly complex area and you have heard a range of

explanations, lead in petrol and a range of other things. Prort crime

has come down. Nobody wants to buy a second-hand DVD without a remote

control and no plug because you can buy one from Asda.

It is the change, part of the point there is that for example, lead in

petrol, well that doesn't explain why there is more theft of mobile

phones for example right so it doesn't work. Whereas things like

what you have just said, why bother stealing modern electronics from a

house? They are not worth anything. Listen, 21st century, we don't need

to do that anymore. The thing that doesn't change so much and when you

disaggregate the property crime from the personal violence crime, we see

that sustaining in lots of countries. Domestic violence, he for

example, we know only a small proportion of domestic violence is

reported to us. Would you say that sexual offences

went be up in the crime figures, but at the same time they are saying

this is the Scottish crime figures, but they are saying that's to do

with the way they are reported? That's a good thing. We need to make

victims more comfortable to report crimes to the police.

Right. OK. I want to come back to your point about the car crime

because while this might be to do with opportunities, could it create

a society less prone to commit crime. If, as you said, stealing a

car is the first crime you commit that can lead on to a life of crime,

if you don't steal the car, you might not go on to a life of crime

and that could make society better? Yes, well, in addition, if there are

less stolen cars in the society, there are less cars available to

drive away from a burglary point and then if there is more stolen

property in society, it is reduced markets for stolen goods.

This could help explain why this generalised fall has happened?

I believe so. Although, we have to be really careful not to generalise

too much. Each country has their own circumstances and historic

circumstances and also its crime type and has their own dynamics.

The other side of this is that, I'm not an expert in crime figures, but

I don't think internet crime and I'm including internet credit card crime

is very well reflected in the crime statistics that we have at the

moment, is it? No, it is not.That could be going up. This is your

problem with people not reporting it and the financial institutions being

reluctant to report it as well? These are just crimes of modernity,

you get different types of crime as the internet increases. The violent

figures showed an important trend. Really going down and bucking the

trend and in fact, it was a steeper decline than in comparison to the

rest of the UK. We have to sum-up. Someone advising

police forces across Scotland or now the police force, does this range of

explanations and this fall in crime mean you are advising people of

different ways of policing? Presumably you don't have to be so

worried if you are a police officer about car crime if there is little

of it? It means parents have to do things, early years, health. Right,

but the bottom line is that for once, this is actually quite good

news. It's a great news story. Everyone who complains we never

report good news can stop complaining for five minutes. Thank

you both for joining us. We have to leave it there.

Now, policemen may have their uniform, but the days - and women -

the days when men could rely on the uniform of suit and tie are gone.

World leaders looked awkward in casual dress yesterday and doctors

say the loss of the white coat and ties is undermining their authority.

Joining us now is the ever dapper Andrew Black.

Mr Dal ton, president of the board of trade says men are too

conservative in their dress. Spats, collars, ties and so on, only use up

valuable coupons and could very well be dispensed with. Back in the old

days wartime ministers like Hugh Dalton had to look their best.

Peeping into the future, we see the well dressed man in full kit, open

necked shirt, no old school tie, no socks. Why, if we go on like this

the V for victory sign will show up in all sorts of strange places.

the one-time Chancellor was also a big fan of dressing down. To this

day, the dress sense of politicians has provided a rich source for

satire. Then this photo call this afternoon, 100 days of the new

leader, got you a Paul Smith suit. I did think about Vivienne Westedwood,

but it was too -- Westwood, but it was too expensive and a Ted Baker

shirt. No tie, we're thinking open neck might be good. I'm already

wearing a suit and controversially a tie. Yeah, absolutely, sure.

Frankly, it all looks a bit 80s you know. We think this is better. It's

modern. It's sharp. It's slimming. G8 summit in Northern Ireland, when

every world leader who turned up was tieless.

Chancellor, George Osborne, revealed the reason behind the dress code.

Basically, I did what I was told to do, which was turn up in what they

call smart casual wear. So, I followed to the letter. I got out my

jacket and blue shirt. So, does this behaviour amount to a serious

fashion faux pas or is it sometimes better to be more informal? If

you're a regular viewer of Newsnight Scotland, you might have picked up

on the fact that I'm probably not the world's biggest tie fan, but I

have agreed to get into the spirit of this item, so I've borrowed one

of Gordon's ties. Now I need to work out how to put it on. Right, let's

That will do. Maybe it's time for some fashion advice. Andrew, so, you

could choose something like this, which is a very conventional,

classic, dark red. Clothes designer Marina says dressing smartly can

send a powerful message. What did she make of the G8 open-neck shirt

brigade? They're always trying to steal an edge on each other. It's a

game of one upmanship. They're always up to something. I thought

perhaps, I mean Blair did it a lot. He would have his sleeves rolled up.

I think that it was, at best, trying to create a level playing field, so

everybody felt equal. At worst, maybe trying to look like Cameron

was getting really stuck in, really dug in. Sleeves rolled up. He looked

like he'd done a bit of weeding perhaps. Does not dressing up at the

office give the impression you might not be up to the job? Consultant

microbiologist Stephanie Dancer has been lamenting Scotland's scruffy

doctors and is calling for a return to white coats. There is a concern

that the public perception has lost confidence in the fact that doctors

are now not quite so smart. There's another way of putting that really.

A person who cares about their appearance, a medic who cares about

their appearance and takes the trouble to look neat and smart is

going to take the trouble with your diagnosis and management. So, a

person who cares about what they look like will care about you.

Doctor dancer says -- Dr Dancer says there's a serious side to her

campaign. I didn't write the article to be a champion of white coats. I

wrote it to remind everybody what clean is all about. And there's a

reason for that. It's because we're having trouble with infection.

in the world of o politics, George Osborne startened up for this

evening's annual Mansion House address. What might the word's --

world's leaders be wearing in future. London Fashion Week has

closed yesterday. There were a huge amount of formal shorts for men.

Imagine a suit, but schoolboy shorts, very Boris Johnson. So

perhaps at the next G8 summit we might see shorts, which is even

scarier than the no tie! Well, maybe not. But it certainly seems like the

smart casual politician look is here to stay. I'm joined now by the style

commentator John Davidson, who's wearing a tie. I like ties.? I like

ties. But what do you think it says to the viewers watching you there?

Probably that I'm an appropriate person to comment on the dress-down

scruffy politicians. I don't know. What did you make of the G8 lot?

curious thing is that they actually looked the same. You would think

that if you encouraged people to step out of the confines of a suit

and try something a bit more smart casual whatever that means to you,

you might end unwith greater variety, but actually, exactly the

reverse, apart from John Merrick everyone looked the same. -- Angela

Merkle that is. The shirts all looked the same. And nobody had

individuality on how they interpreted the code at all. They

looked uniform, curious. What do you think they're trying to show? Is it

an attempt to show like, hey, man, we're with the ordinary people?

Well, it's certainly the case that for quite some time now we've seen a

drift out of conventions in terms of how people dress and present

themselves. Doctors, as mentioned in the clip, and all sorts of other

professions are less likely to wear formal suits a lot of the time these

days. It's inevitable that politicians would follow the same

drift. But it's a curious thing because it's such an unusual thing

to see a line up of world leaders looking so uncomfortable. Yes. So

they'd better learn to like it, in other words? Well, I don't think

it's for real. I think that the lass people in the world - I should say

Angela Merkel looks fine. Point made. She was wearing what she

normally wears. The rest looked a bit silly really. Now I don't expect

you to adjudicate on the question of disease prevention in hospitals, but

on the broader aspect of this thing about doctors, don't the critics

have a point that somehow we, it reassures us when we see a doctor in

a white coat and a tie and a steth scope and it gives -- stethoscope

and it makes us respect their authority. Whereas if you have

people wandering around hospitals in any old thing or a casual uniform,

it doesn't do that? Yes and no. I think it's certainly the case that

some people find the white coat and the stethoscope idea of a doctor

quite intimidating. It might be a good thing? Somebody looks more user

friend friendly, but I think most people actually prefer their doctors

to look neat and tidy. I think if somebody is telling you there's

something very, very wrong with you and here are your options, you want

to feel that perhaps they've taken the trouble to put on a freshly

ironed shirt and make themselves reasonably tidy. Have to leave it

there. We will take this interview as a triumph of formality. The front