3.3. Examine the limitations of agencies in achieving social control.

Question 1

Repeat offenders/recidivism:

Answer 1

• If offenders fail to rehabilitate and continue to commit crime, then social control will never be achieved.
• Between 1993-2015, prison population has nearly doubled (from 48,000 to 90,000).
• 46% of adults and 69% of children are reconvicted within one year of being released.
• Can be considered limitation of achieving social control, so more must be done to prevent repeat offenders.

Question 2

Repeat offenders/recidivism: Who reoffends?

Answer 2

• More serious convictions someone already has, more likely they are to reoffend. e.g. 2018, half (47.5%) of offenders who already had more than 10 convictions offended again.
• Offenders who served prison sentence are more likely to reoffend than those who recieved a warning, fine or community sentence.
• Males more likely to reoffend than females.
• Offenders with drug/alcohol addictions, homeless, those with few qualification, and unemployed more likely to reoffend.

Question 3

Repeat offenders/recidivism: Theory.

Answer 3

• Right realists: argue that ‘prison works’. Offenders are rational actors, so fear of being jailed acts as deterrent for offending. However, high rate of re-offending shows this is not correct.
• Marxists: argues it’s not surprising that unemployed offenders are more likely to reoffend as they have little chance of meeting their needs if they survive solely on benefits.

Question 4

Civil liberties and legal barriers: What are civil liberties?

Answer 4

Civil liberties are basic human rights and freedoms granted to citizens through law.
What civil liberties do we benefit from in the UK?
- Freedom of speech
- Freedom of movement
- Freedom of religious worship.

Question 5

Civil liberties and legal barriers: How can civil liberties stop social control?

Answer 5

• Are restriction placed on agencies such as police, as people have freedom of speech and movement.
• e.g. there are foreign nationals with criminal convictions who cannot be removed from UK due to EU regulations. Deportation cannot take place due to prisoners being in danger in their country.

Question 6

Civil liberties and legal barriers: Link to due process model.

Answer 6

• Many are aspects to due process model.
• e.g. freedom from detention without trial is important protection for the individual against the state’s abuse of power.
• Legal processes involved in due process are a barrier to the state exercising control over its citizens without good cause.

Question 7

Access to resources and support:

Answer 7

• One reason we’re unable to achieve social control is because upon release from prison, an offender will face problems with finance, accommodation and employment.
• Lack of support means ex-offenders will return to crime as they have no other choice to support themselves.

Question 8

Access to resources and support: Prisoner Appenticeship Programme.

Answer 8

• Government planned to introduce a Prisoner Apprenticeship Programme, with guarenteed job release.
• Some prisoners are entitled to £46 on release, remained fixed since 1997. Many prisoners are ineligible.
• Housing benefits stops for prisoners in prison for more than 13 weeks, so many prisoners lose their housing and are released with no settled accomodation.

Question 9

Access to resources and support. Prisons fail to rehabilitate offenders for several reasons:

Answer 9

• Short sentences: don’t give enough time to do intensive work needed to address deep-seated problems. Problem made worse by limited number of places on appropriate courses.
• Inadequate resources for education and training.
• 15% cut in number of prison officers - means there’s fewer officers to supervise prisoners undertaking activities that would help with rehabilitation.
• Release on temporary licence - intended to allow trusted prisoners out to attend training, employment and job interviews.

Question 10

Access to resources and support. Newly released prisoners may face following circumstances:

Answer 10

• Lack of money: prisoners earn little from working in prison and receive only £46 discharge on release.
• Lack of job: only 1/4 of prisoners have job to go to on their release.
• Homelessness: 1 in 9 prisoners have no settled accommodation to go to upon release.

Question 11

Finance:

Answer 11

• Public sector funding (from taxes) is limited and cuts in budget for agencies such as police, has an impact on effectiveness of achieving social control.
• According to prison phone website, National Offender Management Service (NOMS) decreased it’s budget by 1/4 from 2011-2015, whifch equated to £900 million.
• Has impact on most vulnerable prisoners, with incidients of suicide, self-harm and attack of staff rising.
• Prison officers association has warned that inmates with mental health problems are in danger without a boost to finances.

Question 12

Finance: cuts of budgets in organisations:

Answer 12

• The police: between 2010-2018, overall budget was cut by 19%. Led to fall of 20,000 police numbers and there is national shortage of detectives.
• The CPS: between 2010-2018, budget cut by 1/4 and organisation lost 1/3 of its staff
• Prisons: between 2010-2018, the prisons budget fell by 16% and staff levels 15%, while many of the more experienced prison officers left the service.
• The probation service: in annual report 2019, chief inspector of probation highlighted a range of problems, including staff shortages, failures by the private CRCs, and lack of confidence in the service by judges, victims, the public and offenders.

Question 13

Local and national policies:

Answer 13

• Local police forces prioritise certain crimes based on the government targets they are set.
• There have been allegations the police won’t investigate or prosecute certain crimes, leading to less social control.
• There have been allegations police focus on trivial crime instead of serious offences to meet government targets.

Question 14

(local and national policies) National government policies:

Answer 14

At national level, central government introduces laws and policies affecting work of agencies such as police.
- e.g. 2019, Home Secretary announced he was making it easier for police officers to stop and search anyone for an offensive weapon without first having reasonable suspicion they are carrying one.
- Increased police power is part of broader national serious violence strategy. Aims to involve other agencies e.g. youth services.

Question 15

(local and national policies) Local policies:

Answer 15

Some of the priorities of different police forces around the country are set nationally by Home Office, but others are set locally in response to local needs.
- Weapons amnesties is example of local priority. Local police forces hold amnesties where they won’t arrest people who surrender illegal weapons. e.g. 2-week guns amnesty in London (2017) led to 350 firearms and 40,000 rounds of ammunition being handed in.
- Moral panics - ‘dangerous dogs’ led to hasty introduction of new law that has turned out to be largely ineffective in protecting the public.

Question 16

Environment:

Answer 16

• The environment ex-offenders return to can have substantial impact on recidivism.
• Prison reform trust found people are less likely to reoffend if they had family visits, yet 68% of prisoners had no such visits.
• Offenders are less likely to offend if they live with immediate family on release; only 61% do so.
• More needs to be done to encourage family support of prisoners if we want to improve the effectiveness of social control.

Question 17

How to stop environment from being a limitation?

Answer 17

• Purposeful activity (education, work and other activities), reduces risk of reoffending.
• Fewer than 1/2 (44%) of prisons received a positive rating from inspectors in 2015-2016 for purposeful activity work.
• Finding employment after being released from prison has an impact on an effective environment for offenders. However, only 1 in 4 (27%) had a job to go to after prison, and only 12% of employers said they had employed someone with a criminal record.

Question 18

Crimes committed by those with moral imperatives. What is a moral imperative?

Answer 18

A strongly-felt principle that compels that person to act. It’s the right thing to do from a moral viewpoint, but not necessary a legal one.

Question 19

Example of moral imperative: Assisted suicide.

Answer 19

• The Law: both euthanasia and assisted suicide are illegal under English law.
• Assisted suicide: is illegal under the terms of Suicide Act (1961) and is punishable by up to 14 years imprisonment. Trying to kill yourself is not a criminal act.
• Euthanasia: depending on the circumstances, euthanasia is regarded as either manslaughter or murder. The maximum penalty is life imprisonment.

Question 20

Example of moral imperative: The Suffragettes.

Answer 20

• Campaigned for women’s rights to vote. As part of their campaign of direct action and civil disobedience, they deliberately broke the law.
• e.g. Suffragettes set fire to boxes, smashed windows of public buildings etc.
• When convicted, they refused to pay fines.

Question 21

Crimes committed by those with moral imperatives: Theories.

Answer 21

• Functionalists such as Durkheim argue that without deviance, new social values could not emerge, no change would be possible and society would stagnate.
• e.g. the Suffragettes’ law-breaking drew attention to the injustice of denying women to vote and promoted equality between the sexes as basic value to UK society.