An astounding(令人震惊的) change is happening to life in England and Wales that most people don’t know about, and when they are told they don’t believe it. Most crime, including violence, has fallen by a remarkable 90% over the past 30 years. But only 6% of people believe it, while 61% think crime is going up. This great denial is the background cause of the prison overflow crisis, as politicians (of all parties) stir up(煽动，激起) voters to demand ever higher sentences as the imaginary(想象中的，虚构的) cure to their imaginary soaring crime.
英格兰和威尔士的生活正在发生一个惊人的变化，但大多数人对此一无所知，即便被告知也不愿相信。过去30年间，包括暴力犯罪在内的大多数犯罪下降了惊人的90%。然而，只有6%的人相信这一点，而61%的人认为犯罪率在上升。这种普遍的否认是监狱爆满危机的深层原因，因为各党派政客煽动选民，要求判处更长的刑期，以此作为他们想象中犯罪率飙升的想象中解药。
All western European countries enjoy this same remarkable social improvement, with research over decades offering myriad(无数的) reasons why: populations spending longer in education, CCTV, better security for cars and homes, and young people staying at home to play video games of fantasy crime instead of entertaining themselves with the real thing. Removing brain-harming lead from petrol and abortion of unwanted foetus(胎儿)es at risk of future child neglect(忽视，疏忽) are other possible explanations.
所有西欧国家都享有同样显著的社会进步，数十年的研究提供了无数原因：人们受教育时间更长、闭路电视的普及、汽车和家庭安保的改善，以及年轻人待在家里玩虚拟犯罪电子游戏，而不是用真实犯罪来消遣。从汽油中去除损害大脑的铅，以及对可能面临未来忽视风险的意外胎儿进行堕胎，也是其他可能的解释。
This generation inhabits a far less violent society, with many fewer homicide(杀人，谋杀)s, thefts, burglaries and serious violent crimes, but also far less casual social violence in brawls and punch-ups. Older folk nostalgic(怀旧的) for an orderly golden age when no one bothered locking their front door usually situate it just beyond their own memories, in their grandparents’ halcyon days(太平盛世，美好时光). But radical social change leads to less acceptance of any violence. Online fraud and cybercrime are the ones that are steeply(急剧地) rising, though they are committed by quite different criminals.
这一代人生活在一个暴力少得多的社会，凶杀、盗窃、入室盗窃和严重暴力犯罪大幅减少，街头斗殴和拳脚相加的随意社会暴力也少得多。怀念那个无需锁门的有序黄金时代的老年人，通常将这个时代定位在自己记忆之前，即祖辈的太平岁月。但激进的社会变革导致人们对任何暴力的容忍度降低。网络欺诈和网络犯罪正在急剧上升，尽管它们是由完全不同的犯罪分子实施的。