3.1 - explain the roles of agencies in social control Flashcards
Police - role, aims and objectives
The main way that government achieves social control as they’re the 1st point of contact
Aims - keep the peace and maintain order, protect life/property, prevent/detect/investigate crime, bring offenders to justice
Peel’s philosophy of policing - basic mission to prevent crime/disorder, ability to do job depends on public co-operation/approval, using physical violence as last resort, must be impartial when serving the law, police and public are one as they’re paid to uphold law (as we all should)
Basic mission of preventing crime - London riots, police encouraged harsh punishments to act as a deterrent
Public co-operation and approval - Case of April Jones, public co-operating with police (providing statements, helping them look for her, approved of police actions)
Police - funding
Sources of police funding - 2/3 government funding, taxes, charging services (such as football matches)
Budget - budget cuts as they have less funding and less resources, fallen 19% from 2010-2018
More than 10,000 front line officers lost their jobs
Impacts - lack of police visibility (no deterrent and public don’t feel safe), fewer officers out on streets while crime is already rising, lack of resources means hours for police to arrive on scene, some crimes previously attended to now restricted to phone call, less offenders brought to justice
Police - working practices
National and local reach - 39 police force in England, 4 in Wales, 1 in Scotland and 1 in Northern Ireland
Types of criminality and offender - police deal with all types of offences, specialist enforcement agencies deal with certain types of crime (HM revenue and customs deal with tax evasion and fraud)
Police duties - respond to public concerns/reports, keep the peace/ maintain order, patrols, protect life/property, bring offender to justice, collect evidence from witnesses, prevent/detect/investigate crime
Specialist policing - unarmed policing (used for local crimes or sensitive issues where weapons aren’t necessary, reflects Peel, force is last resort), special constables (volunteer unpaid police officers, same powers as police, 16 hours a month), police community support officers (focus on building relationships/working with the community to stop crime, limited powers, deal with anti-social behavior), police and crime commissioners (elected representatives of the police area, give local population a voice in policing by being directly accountable to electorate)
Police - evaluate
Limitations - funding cuts have caused less police visibility due to less jobs so less deterrence, prejudice and bias, unreported crime they cannot deal with so offenders continue to not conform
Benefits - patrolling helps with public protection and deterrence, they successfully convict offenders which deters
CPS - role, aims and objectives
Aims - main public prosecutor in England/Wales, set up in 1968 under prosecution of offences act 1985, decides whether to prosecute and what charges, advises the police in their investigations about lines of inquiry and evidence needed to build a case, prepares cases and present them at court using own lawyers and self employed specialists, independently assess evidence submitted by police and keep cases under continuous review, assists/informs/supports victims and prosecution witnesses
Values - independence and fairness, honesty and openness (don’t hide truth on evidence on cases), treating everyone with respect, behave professionally and strive for excellence, equality and inclusion (so there’s confidence in the CPS)
CPS - funding
Most comes from the government with a budget of around half a billion a year
Recovers some of its costs when the courts award costs against defendants and it recovers assets confiscated from criminals
CPS has suffered significant funding cuts according to head of CPS report - budget fallen by 25%, lost 1/3 of its staff
CPS - working practices
National and local reach - 1 regional teams in England and Wales, virtual 15th area, available 24/7 365 days a year, CPS is a national body prosecuting cases locally
Types of criminality and offender - deal with all offences except for very minor offences such as speeding
Code for crown prosecutors - full code test (evidential test - enough evidence that it’s likely they’ll secure a conviction and evidence must be admissible/reliable/credible, public interest test - it’s in the public’s best interest for the accused to be prosecuted), threshold test (if the case fails to meet others, reasonable grounds to believe suspect is guilty, enough further evidence can be obtained to later secure conviction)
Probation service - role, aims and objectives
Supervise high risk offenders released from prison
Support victims of serious or sexual offences
Work with 300,000 offenders a year
Work with 21 community rehab companies (CRCs), the court, police, etc to manage offenders safely
Priority - Protecting the public
Responsibilities - prepare pre sentence reports, select appropriate sentences, manage approved residences (residency orders), prepare/assess for release, help prisoners meet sentence requirements, prioritise wellbeing of victims
Probation service -funding
Part of the HM prison and probation service
Funded by the national offender management service, through income tax
2018 - £4.6B between 2 services, £342M spent on CRCs with no benefit
CRCs - businesses with a contract with the ministry of justice, paid for meeting target to reduce re-offending, 19/21 didn’t achieve targets
Gov said by Spring 2021 no more private probation contracts
Probation service - working practices
Partnerships - supervises 2 types of offenders
Offender released on license (before end of sentence, has rules attached such as treatment/ group treatment that’s supervised)
Offender with a community order - 300 hours unpaid work, curfew/exclusion order/residency order, group programmes (rehab/ anger management)
Philosophy and values - belief that offenders can change for the better and become responsible members of society, belief in the with/dignity of the individual, commitment to social justice/social inclusion/ equality and diversity
Working practices - 250,00 offenders on probation in 2018, 40% supervised by NPS and 60% supervised by CRCs, national and local reach (7 areas in England and Wales - 10 NPS and 1 CRC in England)
Probation service - evaluate
Limitations - 19/21 of community rehabilitation companies didn’t meet target to reduce re-offending, in 2018 £342 million was invested into CRCs without much improvement, low funding
Benefits - offers offenders programs and regular drug tests to reduce crime, programs for repeat offenders look at why they re-offend, use of approved premises allows for easy supervision and not released into same environment
Charities - Lives not knives
Aim - preventing youth violence in London
Philosophy and values - Engage (support sessions, opportunities and free school meals), Educate (raise awareness and educate on knife crime in schools), Empower (supporting young people/families, learning opportunities)
Type of criminality - young offenders or those at risk, violent offenders
National or local reach - local campaign in London, use of social media and going into schools
Funding - public donations, fundraisers (selling t-shirts, boxing)
Charities - NACRO
Facts - support 28,000 people a year, house 2,000 people a night, 94% pass maths and English
Aims - aims to overcome stereotypes view of ex prisoners, houses over 3000 tenants and provides bail accommodation, in 2018 4,900 people studied through the education services, offer outreach projects to stop at risk young people
Philosophy and values - a social justice charity seeking to change lives, strengthen communities and prevent crime
Funding - income of around £50M per year, mostly from public donations/ gov grants/ contracts for providing service for ex prisoners and others
Working practices - national organisation with local activities/projects, work with range of ex offenders including those released from prison, work with young people at risk of offending (e.g., those excluded from school), case study - Martin given a house/ support sessions/ job when released from prison
