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Your memory is right, sentences were increased. But that isn’t the full story, perhaps, reports of incidents have increased. This skews the figures.
I’d be interested to see data which shows a reduction in an offence caused by increased sentences. My GUESS is there is no connection.
Government require police services to report to them using a system called the Home Office Counting Rules - that’s where the stats are generated. I will make a point that the government COULD, if they wished, modify the rules to skew data to suit someone’s agenda. I’m not saying they have or did but it could be done.These are the HOCR - not easy reading
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/counting-rules-for-recorded-crime
My memory is a bit hazy on this but I think in relatively recenty years there was an increase in sentences for assaults on emergency service workers but despite this the number of assaults increased.