Call me cynical but Dr David Allen's concerns appear self serving. The underlying message is "Appoint me to head the crime forum" I read the precis of his epidemiological survey which was published in the "Insight" column today. It appears to have a skewed and non representative study population, and have inferences and conclusions drawn on opinion and non scientifically supported constructs. This so called research is another example of the pseudo -science which has been touted for decades whenever the subject of the roots of crime becomes a hot agenda. We need yet another National Crime Commission/Tzar/Forum/Foundation like a hole in the head. What we do need is an efficient, trained, managed and operational law enforcement network appropriately funded and free from political and societal meddling . If our bog standard criminals (or wanna be's) really thought that, if they breached any law, there was a real chance that they would be apprehended, brought to trial convicted and sentenced in short order, maybe that would be a true deterrent