What about the women (mother and daughter) who make false allegations against a male who reported their child abuse (grandchild and son) and are given surveillance technology to stalk and harass the guy who tried to protect the child in order to cover up their crime with continuous death threats and the lethal use of the surveillance technology for eight and 3/4 years?

If the police and those in authority can't get this situation right with totally invasive surveillance technology after all these years, how can they be expected to get anything right? Oh, yeah, and the mother was armed by the police despite continuous death threats made against the guy who reported her child abuse. What happens is she uses this gun?

The government sanctions stalking and harassment while providing the weapons. Do you expect the government to do anything?

Gary D Chance, London, UK

Gavin de Becker's book ,The Gift of Fear ,was published in 1997 and the Mosaic programme was already in place then. It is an excellent work and should be compulsary reading for all police officers and legislators.

Vivienne O'Riain, Le Vesinet, France

Wait wait wait... People in the UK were murdered with guns? I thought that guns were banned and confiscated and a figment of the imagination outside of the USA.

John, Alexandria, VA

<b>Hey John, you are an idiot. Total gun deaths in th UK in 2002 were 97 (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/01/10/ngun10.xml). Total gun deaths in the US during the same period were 18,000 (http://www.cnn.com/US/9901/02/murder.rate/)

The US has 5 times the population of the UK, so dividing this figure by five gives us 3,600 murders. The US has 36 gun killings for every 1 in the UK.</b>

Full Name, Melbourne, Australia

Wait wait wait... People in the UK were murdered with guns? I thought that guns were banned and confiscated and a figment of the imagination outside of the USA.

John, Alexandria, VA

I think I understand what the author is trying to say in this article. I would not say it is misleading at all - just another slant on how to detect crime.

Ian Payne, LICHFIELD - STAFFS, ENGLAND

It must be pretty terrifying to be in the position where you know a jealous ex-lover is capable of killing you and the police ain't going to do naff all about it.

Kevin Varney, Reading, UK

There is something very weird going on here. I live in California and i have never heard of "Mosaic20".

In fact, neither has Google. The only hits I find is this article by Linklater and an uncritical reference to his article from some Green Party feminist web site.

Can we get a better reference so that we can check if this is fact or fiction, please?

And I'll spare you the jokes about Minority Report.

jon livesey, Sunnyvale, CA/US

I now suspect everyone I encounter, for safety.

Mike Medina, St. Albans, England

"...detectives seem less enthusiastic about preventing crime than they are about solving it." ...and well they should. It is full of pitfalls for them and society. It has never been the job of law enforcement to prevent crime. Originally, their job was to apprehend people for whom a warrent was issued and present them before the magistrate. We should understand that it is no small leap for the police to go from aprehension of offenders to crime prevention.

Doug Forbes, Wheeling, USA

I fear that preventing such attacks is wishful thinking. Not only was Dominick Dunn's daughter strangled by her violent ex boyfriend in the US, but he only got 2 YEARS even though there was no doubt that he was her killer. As for Soham, a mere background check would have ensured that Mr. Huntley was not hired by the school. I'm afraid this assessment confuses 20-20 hindsight with foresight. You can now be arrested for being "in possession of an egg with intent of throwing" but I have yet to hear of someone being arrested for intent of killing a private person, alas.

elizabeth schumann, Paris, France

Funny, the article neither tells the reader how to spot a homicidal stalker, nor how to prevent his attack. I nominate this piece for 2007's most misleading headline of the year.

Aaron Perhach, Forty Fort, Pennsylvania

I think that what will become subsequently obvious is more likely the cause of the abduction, and indeed we can see something of it now in the disproportionate media attention and the big-money rewards. There will be the selling of stories and all the newly habituated post-trauma procedure. It is an unattractive situation, but it does reflect the cynical and unscrupulous state into which Thatcher’s non-society has fallen. Since this is comparatively early days in the lottery era, it remains to be seen how it may develop.

Henry Percy, London, UK

Why the British should assume a greater level of competence on the part of their police forces compared to other European forces is something of a mystery. The British police have steadily degenerated over the last few years due to a number of factors, most of which emanate from the rotten politico-bureaucratic establishment based in Whitehall.

Gervas Douglas, Andorra la Vella,

The pickaxe is usually a dead giveaway

Mark Vickery, Sittingbourne, Kent

Yes, Magnus, you're on the right track here - as is Jonathan in NYC.
Getting into a debate about the merits and drawbacks of, say, "gun control" sidesteps the real underlying issue of what to do about people who are just plain dangerous sociopaths or psycopaths.
In a free society this poses a grim dilemma as liberty is prized above security. I confess I have no instant solution but the problem must, sooner rather than later, be intelligently addressed.

David Thomas, Slough, UK

Gavin de Becker's book The Gift of Fear was published in 1997 and the Mosaic programme was already set up then. The book is excellent and should be compulsary reading for all police officers and legislators. Another good book in the same vein is The Jigsaw Man by Paul Britton.

Vivienne O'Riain, Le Vesinet, France

Believe me, we live in a very blind-folded society and at times we sense the triggers , strange behaviours and bizzare personality traits , yet we turn oblivious to it. Every stalker or a criminal leaves behind a trail of evidence but we ignore them, presumably thinking that nothing wrong or disastrous might happen. Aren't we like ostrich or some pigeon , who lives with a tunnel vision, devoid of reality. The brutal killing of three young girls by a psycopathic stalker, and the initiative taken by their mothers to book the criminal and bring out justice , is a very sane and sensible move. It should act as an eye opener, a lesson for others too. Can't we break our mental slumber and woke up to face the grim realities of our life. A preventive harsh step take, is far better than to relent for such an happening.

Sanjeev Dheer, New Delhi, India

I think there is some mistake here about the nature of the problem.

For example, everyone who encountered Seung-Hui Cho at Virginia Tech recognized him immediately as a dangerous psychopath. But if society lacks to the courage to do anything about such people, they will stay at liberty until they commit a horrible crime.

Jonathan, NYC, USA