Police Nab Five-Year-Old Mugger

Updated 7:40 AM ET April 26, 2000

LONDON (Reuters) - A five-year-old boy has set an unlikely new British record -- becoming the country's youngest known mugger.

Police in South Yorkshire said the boy had been stopped along with a nine-year-old companion after mugging a woman in her 70s in Mexborough Sunday afternoon.

"The boys have since been given a good talking-to by police," a police spokesman said. "At the age of five, it must be a new record."

A man allegedly saw the pair snatch the woman's handbag and kept hold of them while he called the police on his mobile telephone. The victim was unhurt.

Under English law, a child under the age of 10 cannot be prosecuted.

-- They had plenty of these in the 30's and 70's - right Ken? (@ .), April 26, 2000

Answers

Here is a web site with juvenile crime stats for 1980 through 1998.

http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/ojstatbb/JuvenileArrestRates.html

I couldn't find one that has earlier statistics but I'm sure you must have some to back up your rather pessimistic view of today's world, right?

Juvenile arrests rates per 100,000 population are declining in almost every category and are, in some cases, lower than 1980. I don't see a big juvenile crime wave. The statistics for the decline in adult crime also show a decline, not a rise.

So why do you believe that somehow things are so bad now and were so much better in the 70's?

-- Jim Cooke (JJCooke@yahoo.com), April 26, 2000.

Jim, Jim, Jim...

Don't confuse "a" with data. It just irritates him. "a" refuses to believe crime rates are dropping, unemployment is low, the welfare rolls have been cut by half, people are healthier and living longer, etc. C'mon, Jim, these are the new dark ages! Wake up and smell the gruel. (laughter)

-- Ken Decker (kcdecker@worldnet.att.net), April 26, 2000.

SAT scores are up, teen pregnacy rates are down...

-- helen (home@the.farm), April 26, 2000.

There was actually a boy in my kindergarten class that was capable of this. That was [mumble, mumble] years ago. I remember him well. When he was finished with his work, he went around the room and ripped up everyone else's papers.

-- Anita (Anita_S3@hotmail.com), April 26, 2000.

1965-66 school year ... two 6 year old boys got into a fight. One put a broken bottle into the other kid's eye on purpose. It didn't make the national news, the talk show circuit, or the internet -- but it was a deliberate act of mutilation by one child on another in the mid-60's.

-- helen (home@the.farm), April 27, 2000.