Can Britain survive its petty-crime wave?

This month marks a grim anniversary: 15 years since the London riots of 2011. Beginning with protests over the police shooting of Mark Duggan in Tottenham, the unrest spiraled into five days of carnage and looting in the capital and across the country. England’s urban centers, it turned out, were more of a tinderbox than most had realized. Once order had broken down, chaos metastasized at an incredible rate. Few would argue that Britain’s social fabric is in a better condition today than it was in 2011. There have been further large-scale outbreaks of violence, like Belfast and Southport, but the spread of petty criminality is arguably as damaging. Consider, for instance, a recent analysis by Forecourt Eye, a security company, of the effects of the spike in fuel costs caused by the Iran wa