Making Sense of Crime, published by Sense About Science, details how politicians make unsubstantiated claims about the causes of crime and shows how their proposals for reducing it are lacking in substance and ignore the available evidence.

It states how Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats, UKIP and the Green Party wrongly assume crime has a single root cause and favour headline-grabbing measures to tackle it.

The guide, released today (30^th April), brings together experts, including the former ‘Crimewatch’ presenter, Nick Ross, who share insights from reliable evidence with the aim of revealing how superficial the political debate on crime is.

One of those experts is Professor of Media and Criminal Justice at the University and former BBC Home Affairs Correspondent Prof Silverman.

“Media and politicians have colluded to short-change the public about understanding crime and what works to reduce it.

“This analysis is a long overdue corrective.”

Prateek Buch, director of the Evidence Matters campaign at Sense About Science, added:

“Politicians of all stripes, journalists and think tanks make sweeping statements about the causes of crime and policies to tackle it.

“The best available evidence says they’re wrong, so instead of being misled or having wool pulled over our eyes, it’s time for people to ask for evidence behind crime policy and demand that public figures take account of reliable evidence.”

Published alongside the guide is a ‘crime exaggeration checklist’, designed to help the public spot misleading statements on crime in the run up to May’s general election.

Sense About Science is a charity that helps people to make sense of science and evidence and promotes use of evidence in public life.