Can Crime Go Green?

Your mother probably told you there's some good in everybody. She might have been right.

A study finds that, in the UK, crime has gone green and in a big way. In fact, the transformation of Britain's criminal enterprise is believed responsible for cutting the nation's overall greenhouse gas emissions by a whopping 10%.

How do the scofflaws, reprobates, blackguards and villains do it? Easy.

According to a study published in the British Journal of Criminology, the carbon cost of acquisitive and violent crime in 1995,was estimated at around 7 million tonnes, but was down to 3 million tonnes in 2015 — a drop of 62%.

It means that, in the course of two decades, the UK’s criminals have spared the atmosphere an estimated 54 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent that would otherwise have contributed to global warming. And that is roughly 10% of the nation’s annual emissions.

As the scientists point out, crime levels have been falling, and the nature of crime has also changed.

The ram-raids on jewellers’ shops with a stolen vehicle, the squeal of tyres in police chases, the sudden calls for an ambulance, the stakeouts and hijackings and all the associated street theatre of crime have diminished. Many of yesterday’s armed robbers have switched to lucrative and less overtly destructive online fraud.