STRUGGLING TO END CRIME
"YOUTHS Claim Boredom Is Main Cause of Juvenile Crime." declared a headline in a leading British newspaper. "Home Strife Blamed for Rising Crime," said another. And a third stated: "Addictions 'Prompt Thousands of Crimes'." The magazine Philippine Panorama estimated that 75 percent of all violent crimes in Manila were committed by drug abusers.
Other factors may also contribute to sparking criminal behavior. "Poverty in juxtaposition to great wealth" is one that was referred to by the Nigerian inspector-general of police. Peer pressure and poor job prospects, the absence of strong legal deterrents, the general breakdown in family values, the lack of respect for authority and law, and the excessive violence in films and videos are also cited.
Another factor is that many people no longer believe that crime does not pay. A sociologist at Bologna University in Italy observed that over a period of many years, "the number of thefts reported and the number of persons convicted for them have followed opposite trends." He noted that "the number of convictions in proportion to the total number of reported thefts has plummeted from 50 to 0.7 percent.",
Sad but true are the words of The New Encyclopaedia Britannica: "Increasing crime appears to be a feature of all modern industrialized societies, and no developments in law or penology can be shown to have had a significant impact on the problem. For modern urbanized society, in which economic growth and personal success are dominant values, there is no reason to suppose that crime rates will not continue to increase."
IS THIS VIEW TOO NEGATIVE？
Is the situation really all that bad？ Do not some localities report crime decreases？ True, some do, but statistics can be misleading. For example, it was reported that crime in the Philippines decreased by 20 percent after a gun ban was introduced. But Asiaweek explained that one official believes that car thieves and bank robbers had stopped stealing cars and robbing banks and had "switched to kidnapping." Fewer bank robberies and car thefts caused a drop in total cases of crime, but this decrease lost much of its significance in view of the fourfold increase in kidnappings!
Reporting on Hungary, the magazine BVG wrote: "Compared with the first half of 1993, crime figures are down by 6.2 percent. What the police forgot to mention is that the decrease is mainly due to administrative changes." The monetary level at which cases of theft, fraud, or vandalism were previously registered was raised by 250 percent. So property crimes involving values below this level are no longer registered. Since crimes involving property account for three fourths of all crime in the country, the decrease was hardly genuine.
Arriving at accurate crime figures is admittedly difficult. One reason is that many crimes —perhaps up to 90 percent in certain Categories —go unreported. But arguing whether crime has decreased or increased is actually beside the point. People yearn for crime to be eliminated, not just reduced.
The number about reported thefts and convictions is used to illustrate that ______.

A. thefts have decreased considerably
B. crime does not pay
C. crime rate has risen
D. legal deterrents are not strong