Crime is set to feature as one of the most crucial factors in the coming general election.

The issue occupies a unique place in the policy debate - with the parties striving to out-do each other.

Labour and the Tories talk in terms of "crackdowns" with policy at times being dictated more by the latest headline atrocity than organic development.

But there is a difference of emphasis.

Labour and the Lib Dems lead towards social policy-led "causes of crime" measures. The Tories, on the other hand, talk in terms of traditional morality and victims' rights.

The Liberal Democrats are the only party to raise the concern about the civil liberty implications of recent criminal justice legislation.

The heightened importance of crime as an election issue reflects a growing media interest in the area. This peaked in 1993 after the Bulger murder and intensified in 1996 after the Dunblane tragedy.

In 1974 only eight per cent of the population saw crime as an important issue with more than 80 per cent focused on wage and price issues.

In 2001, the issue ranks third - behind the NHS and schools.

Labour has introduced tough measures like anti-social behaviour, parenting and child safety orders, curfews, fixed penalty and reform of "doli incapax".

These have been combined with social policy programmes such as partnership youth offending teams bringing police, social and education services together to take a preventative approach.

On areas such as sentencing, under pressure from the Conservatives, Jack Straw, has pledged to do more, providing nearly 3,000 extra prison places in a "crackdown" on 100,000 "persistent, hardcore" young offenders.

But the party has not yet met its 1997 pledge to speed up the youth justice system. The target will not be met until 2002.

It has also faced embarrassment over policy numbers, with extra recruitment measures only just starting to bite.

The Tories have sought to exploit the government's difficulty on police numbers. Ann Widdecombe and William Hague see "political correctness" as the main obstacle. They believe liberal elites and the Macpherson report have hit morale.The Liberal Democrats have attacked Labour for a faint-hearted approach to social policy criticising the government, and the Tories, for striking an "authoritarian" note.

Post-election will see radical reform in the criminal justice system regardless of who wins on June 7.

Some suggest Labour may establish a Ministry of Justice. Labour will re-introduce its effort to remove the right to jury trial for low to middle ranking offences.

Both Labour and the Tories agree that reform of the principle of "double jeopardy" for serious offences should at least be considered

Plans to disclose a defendant's previous convictions, give victims more rights, streamline the criminal courts system and reportedly to scrap juries for fraud and child abuse cases will mean that "modernising" criminal justice is set to dominate the agenda in the next parliament.