Do you have references about the deterrence aspect or the relative usefulness? Are these public beliefs or scientific analyses or projections?
The UK seems to have some odd relation to crime. Ubiquitous surveillance and fencing of just about anything (schools etc.) seem to hint that crime is believed to be everywhere or expected, daily TV broadcasts of police-vs-crime shows seem to indicate or enforce a public (morbid?) fascination for it. Perhaps it's a belief thing (similar to religions?) where one feels the need to feed oneself cues that one belongs to the positive part of society and not to the criminals so as not to feel bad? I don't know whether I'm understanding things right, but I'm also not confident that in such a setting public opinion about these matters represents truth.
(I'm a Swiss guy living in the UK, and comparing to Canada and my home country.)
The UK seems to have some odd relation to crime. Ubiquitous surveillance and fencing of just about anything (schools etc.) seem to hint that crime is believed to be everywhere or expected, daily TV broadcasts of police-vs-crime shows seem to indicate or enforce a public (morbid?) fascination for it. Perhaps it's a belief thing (similar to religions?) where one feels the need to feed oneself cues that one belongs to the positive part of society and not to the criminals so as not to feel bad? I don't know whether I'm understanding things right, but I'm also not confident that in such a setting public opinion about these matters represents truth.
(I'm a Swiss guy living in the UK, and comparing to Canada and my home country.)