3.3- Examine the limits of agencies in achieving social control Flashcards
what are the six topic i need to know for limits in social control?
repeat offending
civil liberties and legal barriers
access to resources and support
finance
local and national policies
crime committed by those with moral imperatives
repeat offending- recidivism rates statistics:
-rates in 2019 were 28%
-this who re offend commit a further four sentences each on average
-average number of reoffences per offender has been rising since 2009
-offenders released from prison reoffending rate: 36%, and 64% for those given a sentence less than a year.
-37% juvenile offenders re offend within a year
repeat offending: rising prison population statistics:
-doubled prison population than in 1993. This can be due to prison license: they will be recalled to serve the rest of their sentence if they commit a further offense during the license period.
-longer sentences are being used to change this. Average murder sentence went from 12.5 in 2003 to 21.3 in 2016
repeat offending: who re offends?
-more previous convictions are more likely to re offend. 47.5% of offenders who had 10 or more convictions re offended
-males are more likely
-more likely if your server s prison sentence rather than fine etc
-those who are homeless, or drug addicts are more likely to offend.
Repeat offending: theory’s
right realists argue jail acts as a deterrence/ fear factor, how ever statistics argue this is evidently not true.
marxists argue it id not surprising that unemployed offenders are more likely to reoffend since they have little chance of meeting their needs
Civil liberties and legal barriers: what are they?
basic rights and freedoms guaranteed to every individual by law. Freedom of speech, freedom of assembly + association with others (including protesting peacefully), freedom of movement, freedom from arbitrary arrest, freedom from detention without trial, freedom from religions and conscience and right to privacy, especially from state
civil liberties + legal barriers: human rights abuses
in some authoritarian states- social control agencies have few restrictions on their power to force citizens to behave as the state wishes them to. Critics of the government may feel they are not free to express their opinions and that they risk being locked up indefinitely
civil liberties and legal barriers: due process model
many of these are aspects of the due process model- e.g. freedom from arbitrary arrest + freedom from detentions without trial. These legal processes are a barrier to the state exercising controle over its citizens without gold cause
access to resources and support: why do prisons fail to rehab prisoners?
-short sentences: not enough time to tend to the prisoners needs and assess problems e.g. drug management
-inadequate resources for education and training: chief inspector of prisons in 2020 said they had too few programmes of useful activity and fewer than 2/5ths were delivering good or reasonably good activities
15% cut in number of prisons: obvious problems and means they are locked up by 6pm, denying them to things such as a library
Release on temporary license: intended to allow trusted prisoners out to attend training and employment but very few are able to do this due to staff shortages
main problems newly released prisoners may face: (access to resources and support limit)
lack of money- only receive 46 pound discharge grant
lack of job- only 1/4 of prisoners have a job to go to on their release
homelessness: according to Nacro: 1/9 prisoners has no where to go upon release accommodation wise.
end friday releases campaign (access to resources and support limit)
1/3 of all releases happen on a Friday- leads to races to resources such as medication, resulting in some people having to sleep rough leaving them vulnerable to re offending- and some charities such as Nacro have supported a campaign to end this.
(access to resources and support limit) community sentences and re offending reasons
although community sentencing does prove to be more successful than prison in recidivism rates e.g within 12 months; 34% compared to 64%
there are reasons some do offend:
-inadequate support for complex needs: drug addiction etc
-inadequate supervision by probation services: criticisms it is too laid back in allowing offenders to miss supervision appointments
-Failures of private rehab companies e.g. CRC- failing to meet targets etc
