Black people in Britain are nearly four times as likely to consider crime and violence, rather than racism, as the most pressing problem facing the country, and the vast majority of them fear that it is a problem that is getting worse rather than better.

And while rising crime is a matter of concern acrossall age groups in the black community, it is of greater worry among young people, who are most likely to be the victims of crime and the elderly, who, generally, tend to feel themselves most vulnerable to crime.

Significantly, substantially more women than men are concerned about crime, a poll commissioned by The Voice newspaper also suggests.

The poll was conducted in March by pollster Bill Johnson using a sample of 600 black people from across the United Kingdom. It has a margin of error of plus or minus three per cent.

Pressing problems

When Johnson tested black people on what they considered the most crucial problem confronting the country, 47 per cent said crime and violence against 12 per cent who believed the most pressing problem was racism.

These were followed by unemployment (nine per cent) and, surprisingly, the influence of immigrants from the European Union (EU) countries in recent years (eight per cent) in the wake of the expansion of the EU.

Terrorism, which has exercised the wider British public since Tony Blair swung the U.K. firmly behind the Americans in the war in Iraq, was only a small blip for black Britons: only three per cent of them felt that terrorism was a pressing problem for the country.

These findings have emerged at a time of deepening national concern about crime and a growing focus on so-called black-on-black crime.

Only recently, a collective of black musicians and artistes launched an initiative to tackle gun violence and other crime - a problem which 82 per cent of black Britons said was growing worse. A mere two per cent saw an improvement in the situation.

Gender perspectives

Of black people who fingered criminal violence as the major blot on Britain, women were the most concerned. Fifty-four per cent of black women said it was the U.K.'s greatest issue, 14 percentage points more than the men who held this view.

Young people in the 18-24 age group, as well as black people over 55, shared the deepest fear of crime and violence, with 59 per cent and 58 per cent, respectively, saying it was the U.K.'s most pressing problem.

The anxiety over crime was especially acute in Nottingham, in the English midlands, where 63 per cent of that city's black people said it was the most critical matter facing the country.

However, a softening of this perception elsewhere meant that this view was held by a substantially lower 36 per cent of black people in cities outside of the capital, London.

Pressing problems of blacks in Britain. - Contributed

Opinion on cause of crime by blacks in Britain. - Contributed