3.4 Evaluate the Effectiveness of Agencies in achieving Social Control

Question 1

What 6 agencies do I need to evaluate for 3.4?

Answer 1

Police, Probation, CPS, Judiciary, Prisons, Charities and Pressure Groups

Question 2

What are the police?

Answer 2

• Main agency for detecting, investigating and preventing crime
• Bring lots of cases to court every year
• Can issue fixed penalty notices, cautions and reprimands
• Have specialist departments incl (Counter Terrorism, British Transport Police, Civil Nuclear Constabulary)

Question 3

Strengths of Police

Answer 3

• ✅❌ 2017 HM Inspector of Police Report
  
  • ✅ ⅔ of Domestic Abuse Practitioners felt the police’s approach has improved in the last 3 years
  • ❌ The report showed problems with the police’s performance in regards to domestic abuse:
    
    • Arrest rate falling
    • Not using bail conditions to protect victims
    • Staff shortages causing delays in response to incidents
    • Body-worn cameras not always being used to gather evidence
• ✅❌ Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW)
  
  • ✅ 10% reduction in crime 22 vs 23 = more social control
  • ❌ Looks at different crimes to ONS + Home Office

Question 4

Limitations of the Police

Answer 4

• ❌ Macpherson Report - !
  
  • The investigation into the killing of Stephen Lawrence had been “marred by a combination of professional incompetence, institutional racism and a failure of leadership”
  • Found the Met police were institutionally racist
  • Concerning relationship between the police and BAME groups, therefore should hire more BAME staff and use stop and search less with them
• ❌ Funding - !
  
  • From 2010 the government made large cuts to the police’s budget which has led to them dropping more and more investigations
  • Less money limits their ability to achieve social control, can’t pay staff to investigate crimes and hand out sentences as deterrents

Question 5

Who are CPS?

Answer 5

• Main public prosecutor
• Aims to achieve social control by preparing cases and presenting them in court to secure conviction

Question 6

Strengths of CPS

Answer 6

• ✅ 86% conviction rate, protecting victims
• ✅ Independent from the police
• ✅ The tests provide a rigorous criteria, helps lawyers give their clients advice, fair

Question 7

Limitations of CPS

Answer 7

• ❌ Officers build up a rapport with CPS staff so may still be bias, even though their purpose was to avoid this
• ❌ Poor handling of rape cases, drop ‘weak’ cases to improve rate of successful prosecution, this is limiting victims access to justice
• ❌ Budget cuts = 25-30%, lost 1/3 of staff, Director of Public Prosecutions (2018)C PS cannot sustain further cuts
• ❌ Digital technology imposing heavy additional workloads on staff e.g. analysis of smartphones in search of evidence and to comply with rules for disclosure to the defence
• ❌ CASE STUDIES
  Damilola Taylor (should not have taken to court)
  Lord Janner (rejected police numerous times when enough evidence)

Question 8

Who are judiciary?

Answer 8

• Ensuring trials are fair and human rights compliant
• Experienced and highly qualified lawyers
• Uses a system of precedent to ensure consistency and fairness

Question 9

Strengths of Judiciary

Answer 9

• ✅ The Unduly Lenient Sentences scheme
  
  • Allows victims, prosecutors and members of the public to apply to the Attorney General for a sentence to be reviewed
  • The scheme applies to sentences for serious offences: murder, rape, robbery, child sex crimes, human trafficking
  • Very few applications are made
  • 2017 – 173 cases referred to the Court of Appeal – 137 had sentences increased
  • Suggests that, in general, judges are not unduly lenient in sentencing

Question 10

Limitations of Judiciary

Answer 10

• ❌ Unrepresentative
  
  • Media portray them as upper-class males out of touch with society
    
    • 71% male (one of worst m/f proportions in Europe)
    • More than half are older then 50
    • Less 5% are BAME vs 18% in society
    • 75% privately educated/Oxbridge
  • E.g. Lavina Woodward case, judge said “too bright to go to prison” so didn’t go to prison for wounding, instead got suspended sentence because Oxford student with wealthy background
• ❌ Out of touch
  
  • Judges have been quoted saying things making them appear out of touch
  • “Who are the beatles?”, “What is that?” (about a Teletubby)
• ❌ Make inappropriate comments
  
  • “Man United can afford it” about workers taking money out of tills
  • Calling a model “talented” after stealing from Harrods

Question 11

What do the Prisons aim to do?

Answer 11

• Aims to achieve social control by punishing offenders and by rehabilitating them so they can follow a crime free life on release
• Aims to exercise social control over offenders whilst they are in prison – following the rules and acting in orderly manner

Question 12

Strengths of Prisons

Answer 12

• Prison reform trust (independent UK charity)
  
  • Aims to reduce imprisonment and improve conditions for prisoners and their families
  • Many projects funded by National Lottery Community Fund
  • Ensure equality in prisons
  • Fight for the rights of women and BAME
• ✅ Deterrent (H)
  
  • Deters people from committing crimes
  • (H) High recidivism rate suggests otherwise (47% and 68%)
  • This is because the system doesn’t tackle the cause of the crime e.g. lack of skills or qualification OR drug/alcohol addiction so they go straight back to what they know and the life they had before prison, except with more criminal skills and contacts.
• ✅ Effective at protecting public
  
  • Only 8 escapes in 2023, and this number is consistently falling (e.g. 77 in 2000)
  • Never escape from Belmarsh
• ✅ Rehabilitation (H)
  
  • Some prisons have skills straining and facilities to study basic GCSE’s, improve chance of getting employment and therefore become functioning member of society
  • (H) Usually only low category prisons

Question 13

Limitations of Prisons

Answer 13

• ❌ Staff shortage
  
  • Staff cuts led to number of officers falling 15% from 2010-2018. Less staff makes it harder to control inmates
  • Prison are severely overcrowded, same effects staff:prisoner ratio is very unbalanced. Also leads to discontent and rule breaking
• ❌ Not effective at reforming
  
  • Don’t cater enough for (mental health needs, drug and alcohol addictions, illiteracy and lack of qualification), means many offenders follow a perpetual cycle of deviance as no other skills and not received help for the cause.
  • Short sentences also means staff don’t have enough time to reform them (you can learn criminal skills in prison much faster than you can be reformed)
• ❌ Drugs and Security Breaches
  
  • Rife drug taking. 2018 Chief Inspector of Prisons reported that mandatory drug testing programme in prisons was not running effectively due to staff shortages. Undermines the control that prisons should have
  • Frequent security breaches (drugs, sim cards and phones, weapons), led to in 2018 to * 8,400 assaults on staff * 22,000 assaults on prisoners * 5 homicides
• ❌ Prison environment harmful (Psychology)
  
  • Bartol = brutal, demeaning, devastating
  • PRT = 15% men and 25% report psychosis symptoms
  • 733 self harm per 1000 (22-23)

Question 14

Probation Public v Private argument

Answer 14

• ❌ Difference in the public sector national probation service and the privatised sector of community rehabilitation programmes
  
  • 21 private Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRC) were set up, 19 of them failed to to meet their targets on rehabilitating offenders and had to have an extra £342m Offenders were often supervised by telephone only, and only 54% of housing needs were met
  • Dame Glenys Stacey, head of probation service said it was ‘irredeemably flawed’
• ✅ In 2018 the government announced they would terminate the private contracts to probation companies because of the mixed service being provided, they weren’t actually rehabilitating people instead just trying to get more funding
  
  • More funding being put back into public side of it, more recruiting
  • Being carried out properly now, actual community service being done
• ✅ The National Probation Service has been more effective as it’s halved the re-offending rate compared to prison.

Question 15

Strengths of Probation Service

Answer 15

• ✅ Supports rehabilitation with frequent check ups
• ✅ Probation during community sentence helps keep out of prison, Labelling theory
• ✅ Help to resettle into community after leaving prison
• ✅ Make individualised plans for each offender to help tackle problems and change

Question 16

Limitations of Probation Service

Answer 16

• ❌ A critical national shortage of probation officers (roughly 13 offenders for every staff member)
• ❌ High workloads led to professional standards being compromised
• ❌ Probation premises and dated, shabby and not secure
• ❌ No national strategy provide enough local specialist services
• ❌ Shortage of places on specialist programmes to address causes of offending

Question 17

What are Charities and Pressure Groups?

Answer 17

Voluntary non profit organisations that promote the interests of the people they are concerned with.
-Charities = organisations to help people in need
-Pressure groups = organisations that campaign for change

Question 18

Strengths of Charities and Pressure Groups

Answer 18

• ✅ Committed
  
  • Have a strong commitment/passion for their area (e.g. Women in Prison) so are in the best position to achieve social control because they are strongly motivated and go the extra mile which government agencies may not do.
• ✅ NACRO (charity)
  
  • Campaigns to end friday release from prison (⅓ of all releases) because people have no time to access vital services and end up sleeping rough, not having medication and re-offending
  • Provides accommodation for people released from prison, supports them finding long term accommodation. Tackling homelessness helps to achieve social control because people feel less of a need to commit crime
• ✅ Women in Prison (pressure group)
  
  • Committed to tackling the root cause of women’s offending, e.g. homelessness, poverty, mental illness and substance abuse
  • Campaigns to reduce the amount of women in prison
    
    • Try to make the government drop it’s plan to build 5 new prisons for women, instead invest in specialist women’s centres and community-based solutions like housing and mental health support that reduce re-offending
    • Calls on the government to reduce sentencing guidelines and only use prisons as a last resort because 84% of prison sentences for women are for nonviolent crimes like not paying council tax or tv licence
  • Provide free telephone helpline for support and guidance
  • Refer them to over specialist agencies
  • Deliver a CARE program for women with a history of self harm, substance abuse etc

Question 19

Limitations of Charities and Pressure Groups

Answer 19

• ❌ They are voluntary organisations so they only exist when people are concerned with an issue or topic
• ❌ People may be less concerned with the reforming ex-offenders so opportunities to achieve social control are missed
• ❌ Media reporting plays a role
  
  • If they are portrayed sympathetically then support for charities and pressure groups may increase.
  • If the media demonise a category of offender then it may be harder for organisations to work with them
    ALSO requires lots of commitment and time from volunteers