Daily Mail columnist Peter Hitchens challenges official claims that crime in Britain is falling, disputing a BBC Radio 4 series presented by Mark Easton that argues the public's perception of rising crime is mistaken. Hitchens argues that everyday experience — visible drug use, antisocial behaviour and disorder in town centres — contradicts these reassurances, and suggests the "crime is falling" narrative, embraced by politicians of all parties, has contributed to a weakened criminal justice system.

Hitchens traces the issue to a change in how crime statistics are compiled. He notes that consistent Home Office crime figures were collected from 1898 until 2002, when a new National Crime Recording Standard, introduced under the Blair government, changed the methodology so that modern "recorded crime" data cannot be compared with the historical series. He cites Dr Rodger Patrick, a former West Midlands Chief Inspector turned academic, who says the figures have been "fiddled" and are unreliable, and references a 2013 Parliamentary Public Administration Committee report, "Caught Red-Handed," which found "strong evidence of under-recording" that exaggerated the apparent fall in crime.