THERE has been much contention over the jailing for life of Norfolk farmer Tony Martin for the shooting to death of teenage burglar and serial scally Fred Barras.

But whether or not you believe -- as many people do -- that Mr Martin was hard done to, is there not as much controversy in the advice of Norfolk's chief constable, Kenneth Williams, to householders who find themselves in the same circumstances as Mr Martin?

Instead of shooting, said the county's top police officer, victims should scream for help, shout and make a lot of noise -- although police help could take 20 minutes to arrive.

Oh yeah? How shrill do you have to be to make a thieving thug, possibly one armed with a knife or baseball bat, turn and flee?

The fact is that thieves are quite likely to stand their ground and fight -- because even if they are caught, the law is likely to be remarkably lenient. This was shown by the three villains involved in the burglary of Mr Martin's home having 114 convictions between them, but only two of them having had a (brief) taste of prison once they had clocked up 50 offences between them.

I am quite sure that if householders were free to administer justice themselves in the way that those in America are -- with laws in many states that enshrine the action Mr Martin took in defence of his property -- we would not have property crime rates in this country that are double those of the USA.

What one could scream about is the surrender of the police to this menace to the extent that Mr Williams' force has actually advised burglary victims not to press charges because they cannot protect them against reprisals.

And, yet, when a householder decides to protect himself, the law protects the attacker.

Tough on crime and the causes of crime?