Roger Pilon of the Cato Institute notes that a mere three mentions of crime in the Constitution have blossomed into 3, 000 federal criminal statutes and perhaps 300, 000 regulations with criminal sanctions.

FORBES: E Pluribus Mishmash

Some 19.7% of Northern Ireland households experienced a crime during that period, three-quarters of the rate in England and Wales during 2000 (26.8%).

BBC: Cracking crime in NI

And in three of the cities less than 3% of gang homicides took place during a crime.

ECONOMIST: Gang violence

Since then the sheriff and district attorney have amassed a mountain of physical evidence that they say links the three to the crime.

ECONOMIST: The Jasper trial

You are almost twice as likely to be the victim of violent crime in towns and cities, almost three times as likely to suffer a burglary.

BBC: Urban v rural: Which is better?

Nearly three quarters of drinkers and clubbers in Gloucester who took part in a survey on the fear of crime said they felt safe walking the streets at night.

BBC: Late night revellers 'feel safe' on Gloucester's streets

We had a policy of reporting every single illegal immigrant other than those three who commit any kind of crime or were suspected of crime, and we reported thousands of them to immigration service.

CNN: Giuliani's responses at the CNN/YouTube debate

Today's crime figures use yet another definition of ASB - "a new set of three simplified categories, " the first of which is "nuisance".

BBC: Is Britain behaving better?

Indeed, Vincent Schiraldi and Geri Silva, two critics of the three-strikes law, calculate that crime fell 11% more in the 24 states without such a law.

ECONOMIST: Do pizza-stealers deserve 25 years?