FEAR of crime does not exist, and the Government and police forces are wasting money by trying to reduce it, a crime conference in North Yorkshire was told.

Professor Jason Ditton, from Sheffield University's faculty of law and the Scottish Centre for Criminology, told a meeting of the Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships in Yorkshire and the Humber, in Harrogate yesterday, that crime surveys were essentially flawed and did not reflect people's true feelings about crime.

However, fear of crime is viewed as a serious problem in the region, and tackling it has become one of the Government's top priorities.

The conference was organised by the Home Office Crime Reduction Unit for Yorkshire and the Humber, to focus on developing strategies to tackle the fear of crime, the relationship between crime and the fear of crime, and how it impacts on rural communities.

North Yorkshire's chief constable, David Kenworthy, said crime levels in the county were low, but he would keep trying to put more officers on the beat in an effort to reassure people and change perceptions.

He said in rural areas, the lack of services, physical isolation and social exclusion were real problems.

Although crime levels reflected the UK as a whole, there was a disproportionate fear of crime.

"The reality is that there's very little crime in North Yorkshire, and people worry needlessly

"Unfortunately, everywhere we turn, people talk about the fear of crime - the Government, the media. We have got to deal with it and confront it. We want to give people the true facts about crime.

"We are being told by the public and the Government to put more police officers on the street for reassurance.

"If that achieves reassurance, then it's worthwhile, but it has to be looked at against a whole host of other demands.

"We'll never see as many police officers about as people want," said Mr Kenworthy.

But Professor Ditton said: "You can't reduce something that doesn't exist - fear of crime only exists in crime surveys."

He said people were angry about crime rather than afraid, and resources should not be wasted on meaningless surveys.

Updated: 10:33 Saturday, March 16, 2002