3.3 - examine limitations of agencies in achieving social control Flashcards
Repeat offenders
46% adults and 69% children reconvicted within 1 year (higher if less than 1 year sentence)
between 1993-2015 prison population nearly doubled (48,000 - 99,000) - however offenders do receive longer sentences now (inaccurate stats)
if offenders fails to rehabilitate and continue to commit crime, social control is never achieved
Especially with short sentences, no time to rehabilitate, just learn from other offenders
Links to labelling theory
Civil liberties and legal barriers
Civil liberties - basic human rights and freedoms granted to all citizens of a country through law
Some countries - very few civil liberties, act as a police state (the police are permitted to do anything to ensure all people conform), such as Saudi Arabia
Examples - right to a fair trial, right to freedom of speech, freedom of movement, freedom of religious worship - all link to due process model
Limiting power - Abu Qatdar couldn’t be deported as home country were going to charge him with evidence obtained under torture, limits police ability to exercise power
Limiting power - right to a fair trail places limits on the police/ CPS and courts
Access to resources and support
Limits in prison - short sentences (less time to rehabilitate which leads to reoffending), 15% cut in number of prison officers (less rehabilitation and more time in cells), unwillingness (Bromley briefings prison fact file said 10/34 male prisoners weren’t engaging)
Prisons not limited - Norway’s use of humane prisons, high inmate/staff relations (less violence), good for rehab as is similar to outside life
Limits outside prison - no jobs (only 1/4 have a job to go to), inadequate support for complex needs (drug addicts or mental health), without constant supervision due to lack of time likely to offend, release on Fridays (over 1/3 meaning lack of time to get accommodation/medicine so people sleep on streets and likely to re-offend) - END OF FRIDAY RELEASES CAMPAIGN
Finance
Publicly funded services paid by taxpayers’ money will always be limited due to their budgets, but budgets have been cut recently
Police - 2010-2018 budget fell by 19%, 10,000 front line officers lost jobs, evidence shows cases such as sexual assault are dropped as take longer to solve, no police visibility, take long time to reach crime scene
CPS - 2010-2018 budget cut by 25% and lost 1/3 of staff, head of CPS said lack of proper investigation into rape and fraud as don’t have the resources to challenge, accused of giving lighter charges to send case to magistrate’s as it’s quicker
Prisons - 3% cut in day-to-day budget (2007-2023), 2010-2018 budget fell by 16, 15% staff all so experienced officers have left, more assaults/ suicide in prisons, can’t rehabilitate
Probation - £342M invested into CRC’s yet are performing below standards, national shortage of staff leads to over-reliance, not keeping victims safe, lack of supervision for offenders
Local and national policies
Gov may use a policy to announce a change in priorities for police, meaning more time/resources on some crimes - 2010-2015 move from gov to tackle gang/knife crime
National policy (Serious violence strategy) - focuses on early intervention/ prevention to help catch young people at risk, £11m early intervention fund for communities in 2018-2020
Limiting power = that £11M cannot be spent on other areas that may be necessary, the youth haven’t committed crime, could argue more money should be spent on rehabilitating current offenders
Local policy (weapons amnesties) - knife surrender scheme, bins/ collection points where people can drop off weapons with no questions, 350 guns in London 2017, such as tasers sword or firearms
Limiting power = police can’t investigate (no deterrent), could increase public concern about violence meaning more individuals carry
Environment
The environment a person is released into from prison may mean they’re more likely to break the law again
Ex-offenders may go back to same situation as before if in the same peer group or neighbourhood as they may be tempted by old behaviours
More likely if don’t have a job (27% of releases have jobs)
Can be reduced is released to family due to attachment
Crimes committed by those with moral imperatives
Moral imperative - something someone feels strongly about and so they feel they must act, believe offending is the right thing to do
This results in a limitation, they
cannot be stopped as they feel compelled to act
Suffragettes - they felt so strongly about women’s rights that they were committing criminal acts that led to imprisonment, they would go on hunger strikes and be force fed, police abuse led to the cat and mouse act, this led to them being let out from prison early where they would continue violent protests as they felt morally obliged
Limiting power = the gov had to intervene, meaning police are limited on their ability to keep the suffragettes imprisoned, leading to re-offending
Stansted 15 - 15 protestors who took part in a non-violent protest for the rights of individuals who were imprisoned and about to be deported (would’ve been killed or prosecuted in new country), had the potential of life sentences for terrorism, discovered the individuals were victims of trafficking and they were saved from deportation
Limiting power = the police were unable to carry out the deportation, potentially leading to more foreign individuals to commit crimes as they believe they won’t be deported
However - functionalists would argue the deviance shown by these individuals in breaking the law is sometimes necessary to cause change or reinforce boundaries - women may never have been able to vote if they hadn’t protested
