Victims of non-violent crime want offenders to be punished, but don't always think prison is the best answer, according to information from Bedfordshire Probation Service.

Following a survey for the Ministry of Justice, of people who have been targeted by thieves and petty criminals in the East of England, 80 per cent said they would prefer a criminal to be given an effective punishment rather than a harsh one.

And the same number of victims favoured a community sentence for the person responsible if it would prevent the criminal from re-offending.

Financially, a community order is more cost effective, as that costs taxpayers about £3,500 a year - whereas a short prison sentence can cost almost £3,000 a month.

Nationally, 1,085 victims of non-violent crime were questioned and researchers found that nearly half of them saw punishment as the most important part of an offenders sentence.

But nationally, 86 per cent of victims of house burglaries, and 83 per cent of those who had been pickpocketed, were in favour of community sentences rather than time behind bars.

Only 15 per cent of those who had their mobile phone stolen believed a community sentence was inappropriate.

In Bedfordshire, there are 1,200 criminals serving community sentences, with 772 of these also on programmes to tackle problems such as drug and alcohol abuse which can lead to re-offending.

Also, 73,558 hours of unpaid work have been completed in the county this year by offenders doing Community Payback to repay society for their crime.

Visit the Beds Probation Service website