Given that provocation is taken into account in all other crimes, why is it ‘heresy’ to suggest that there might be contributory negligence by the victim in a rape case? Why do 50 per cent of all charges for ‘violence against the person’ actually involve no physical injury at all? Is eye-witness testimony ever reliable? Are we all susceptible to commit crime if the temptation is great enough? Is criminology any more than a refuge for liberal leftist do-gooders?

In this thought-provoking, forensic analysis of the criminal and law enforcement industries, Nick Ross challenges some core assumptions and prejudices about how we think about criminal activity and its remedies.

A much-loved ‘national treasure’, Nick Ross fronted the BBC’s Crimewatch for 23 years - almost a life sentence in itself. After scaring half the nation with dramatisations of vicious criminal attacks, he would sign off with the words ‘Don’t have nightmares’. So how responsible is the media for the (mis)perception of crime?