AC3.3 - Examine the limitations of agencies in achieving social control

Question 1

Repeat offenders/recidivism

Answer 1

• If offenders fail to rehab and they continue to commit crimes social control will never be achieved
• Recidivism is one of the main reasons why the prison population has increased over the past 20 years
• The amount of people convicted returning to prison with a year has almost increased by 50%

Question 2

Civil liberties and legal barriers

Answer 2

• Basic rights and freedoms granted to citizens of a country (e.g. freedom of speech, movement, religious worship etc)
• Can limit social control as they restrict police from being able to do so (e.g. foreign nationals with criminal convictions who cannot be removed from the UK due to prisons in their home country being dangerous for them)

Question 3

Access to resources ans support

Answer 3

• Lack of support/resources could lead to prisoners tempted to return to crime in order to survive
• Prisoners face problems with finance, accommodation and education once released
• Limiting prisoners from being able to rehab means that the success of social control is limited

Question 4

Finance

Answer 4

• Funding is limited and budget cuts have meant that some agencies effectiveness have been impacted (e.g. CPS - damilola Taylor and police)
• Shortage of police officers on streets, lack of prison staff and specialist teams
• Lack of prison staff means that prisoners have less free time and are confined to their cells more which can impact their mental health

Question 5

Local and national policies

Answer 5

• Local police priorities certain crimes over others depending on the scale of the problem they are causing, meaning some crimes are not investigated
• National Gov. policies focus on certain crimes at times (e.g. knife crimes and gang related crimes)
• Not investigating some crimes can therefore lead to unrelated crime data

Question 6

Environment

Answer 6

• When prisoners are released their environment can have a large impact on whether they re-offend or not
• If an offender returns to an environment with limited opportunities and criminal friends it is likely they will re-offend
• If they move to a new environment they may have more opportunities

Question 7

Crimes committed by those with moral imperatives

Answer 7

= A strongly felt principle that compels a person to act
- Offenders can commit crimes as they believe what they are doing is correct from a moral point of view
- Assisted suicide is an example as it could be committed with a compassionate motive
- Social control is therefore limited as a persons moral compass surpasses rules of social control