To think criminals are very common?

I thought drugs were rife in the country

In the sense that they've never tried to sell drugs to you possibly. In my working life I knew of many people who used "recreational pharmaceuticals", I suspect that some of them were also dealers. They don't waste time on people who don't want the product or might shop them,

I only know one person who has been convicted of a crime. An ex colleague who was found guilty of some minor drugs offence years ago.

I don't think I could name anyone who hasn't broken the law on occasion.

As far as I know I don’t know anyone with a criminal record.

But I do live in a leafy area and also work in a profession where you can’t have any serious criminal convictions so I’d accept that my sample is probably not representative.

I actually had no idea that the proportion of the population with a criminal record was so high. I remember reading a while back that a very small proportion of the population is responsible for a huge proportion of the crime.

Everyone knows someone who uses recreational drugs. Might be a bit of weed for their stress, a line of coke once in a blue moon, a little social something for the young, but they all get it from somebody. That somebody is a dealer, who has a supplier, who has a distribution network.

This gives you six degrees of separation from a big-time trafficker. And it's reproduced with each different kind of user/substance.

If you think you don't know anyone in the UK who uses, you either don't know anybody or they're carefully not mentioning it around you.

My cousin is a drug dealer, my dad used to help people rob department stores and generally helped move stolen goods, he committed insurance fraud at least a few times that I know of and was convicted of elder neglect. Where I grew up the drug dealing cousin is standard - I think most people I grew up with would say they had a dealer somewhere in their family (and my cousin has never been arrested, never mind convicted).

My DH grew up what I considered posh (just Southern really but to me feels posh), one of his uncles was a bank robber and another one worked for the Met

I do think MN is another world, particularly stuff like stolen and counterfeit goods. To be fair as an adult I don't know any criminals!

Interesting. I know that technically if you commit a crime, you are a criminal. However in my head a criminal is someone who either continually breaks the law (eg shoplifts often), or someone who has committed a serious offence (murder etc). If someone forgot to scan their bananas at scan and go, realised by the tills and went ‘ah never mind’, does that mean they’re a criminal? 🤣

In that sense I do think everyone, well maybe most, are criminals - if the threshold is so low. I mean, my kid at 1.5 yo picked up a toothbrush in the shops before and I only noticed outside. I didn’t go back to pay for it. Am I a criminal? Is he? For life?!

You knew everyone in the city?? And their connection to the drugs trade?

Everyone?

The other key is where I've worked and met criminals.

I am not naive; very worldly wise.

I’ve done loads of crime, shoplifting as a kid, graffiti, stealing from an employer (alcohol), loads of driving offences. I signed my ex up to swinging sites, that would be done under the new malicious communications act now I think.

obviously not been caught for any of it. I try hard not to break the law now but it still happens.

I mean, that's nonsense.

100% of any city's population are not involved in drugs, even if 100% of the people you mixed with were.

I do think it will be somewhat location dependent though. There will be zones where a really highly proportion of the men will have got a record and other areas where it’s low.
I find it hard to believe that one in 5 men living in rural villages and towns have a record , but it could easily be the vast majority in some inner city areas.

I live in a village and we know everything about everyone, going back generations. There’s no way people are getting criminal records round here without it coming to light!

I mean, pretty obviously this depends on your social circle, life chances, background etc.

No, I don't know any professional drug dealers.

The key phrase here is, as far as I'm aware.
You'd be surprised.

Here's my rather long Google search, very informative 🙂 I've looked up many of the linked sources because this data is very fragmented. All of them emphasised that a criminal record includes things like cautions and minor offences committed long ago.

Finding the correct number for actual convictions is even trickier. However, it does seem to be between 20% and 28% so, at best, you're looking at one in five (including very old convictions). And the vast majority are men, meaning the proportion of males is well above one in five.

I think you're right OP. I think if people factor in people they know who take drugs then yes, pretty much every poster here will know a criminal because that's how widespread it is, even if the users have never been caught, let alone prosecuted.

I remember a thread here a while ago where someone was concerned that their kid's primary school teachers had been out taking cocaine at the weekend and the response was that it was none of her business and she was being totally unreasonable to be concerned about it - an illegal industry which causes untold misery all along the supply chain. And yet on the Tesco thread there are so many posters who are convinced that it's a terrible theft. I can't square it. To my mind drugs are much worse than accepting an accidental delivery from a huge supermarket company.

25% of men have a criminal record??? Is that right? I don’t know anyone with a criminal record that I know about. I appreciate that a lot of people would keep it quiet, but are a quarter of the men I know keeping it so quiet I don’t even hear a rumour?

You probably live in a dodgy area. I can only think of one person who has committed a crime but it's my mum's friends son who I have never met, so hardly a close link.

Are you living in the USA OP?

I agree, criminals are everywhere

Given the types of people I've caught stealing from my shop I would say you're not far off the truth OP. I imagine that the friends and family of these thieves would never in a million years believe it. Not one of them looks like they are going around helping themselves to small businesses stock 🤬

Obviously depends on your family and social circle but I don't have any criminal relatives or friends