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

Question 1

What is the limitation of repeat offenders and recidivism?

Answer 1

If offenders fail to rehabilitate and continue to commit crime, social control will never be reached. Recidivism is one of the reasons that the prison population has increased dramatically over the last 20 years.

According to the Prison Reform Trust between 1993 and 2015 the prison population in England and Wales has nearly doubled, with an extra 41,000 behind bars. The number of people incarcerated at the end of June 2016 was 89,332.

Anyone leaving custody who has served two days or more is now required to serve a minimum of 12 months under supervision. This has led to a dramatic increase in number of people being recalled to custody. The recall population is now 19% higher

Question 2

What did the Bromley Briefings find about repeat offenders?

Answer 2

• Prison has a poor record for reducing reoffending - 46% of adults are reconvicted within one year of release
• For those serving sentences of less than 12 months, this increases to 60%
• 48% of women leaving prison are reconvicted within one year
• 68% of under 18s are reconvicted within a year of release

Question 3

How does social learning theory link to reoffending?

Answer 3

Prisons act as a university of crime. Someone convicted of a minor offence will learn more and worse criminals. Learn crime, repeat outside

Question 4

How does labelling theory link to reoffending?

Answer 4

Labelled as criminal so will live up to that label SFP, will believe they are criminal

Question 5

How does Lombroso link to reoffending?

Answer 5

Born criminal, should keep them locked up bound to reoffend because can’t change

Question 6

What are civil liberties?

Answer 6

Basic rights and freedom granted to citizens of a country e.g., freedom of speech, freedom of movement, freedom from arbitrary arrest etc

Question 7

How can civil liberties limit agencies in achieving social control?

Answer 7

An example of this could be a foreign national with a criminal conviction living in the UK. They cannot be removed from the UK due to EU regulations. Deportation cannot take place due to prisoners being in danger in their home country so must remain in the UK

Question 8

What is a case study that links to civil liberties?

Answer 8

Abu Qatada was an asylum seeker from Jordan accused of being part of a terrorist organisation and radicalising others. UK gov wanted to deport him because the UK didn’t have enough evidence to convict hum. He argued that he couldn’t get sent back because he would be tortured. It took 8 years to deport him and in that time, we has placed on house arrest and was only allowed to leave his house at certain times. This shows social control wasn’t achieved because he had freedom to talk to other people and radicalisation continued. They didn’t want him in UK prisons out of fear of radicalisation

Question 9

What is the limitation of access to resources/support

Answer 9

Access to resources limits prisoners from being able to rehabilitate. Upon release, offenders will face problems with finance, accommodation and employment

Question 10

What are the types of resouces

Answer 10

In prison and in the community

Question 11

What are the resources in prison?

Answer 11

• Prison Reform Trust: In 10 of the 34 adult male prions inspected in 2015-16, there were not enough activity places to ensure all prisoners could access education or vocational training throughout the week
• 21 of the prisons failed to fill their available spaces due to a combination of staff shortages, poor allocation processes and the failure of staff to challenge later or non attendance
• 5% of people entering prison were assessed as having literacy skills expected of an 11 year old over 3X higher than the general adult population. Prion education standards are deteriorating. Almost 3/4 of prisons inspected by Ofsted were judged as requiring improvement or inadequate

Question 12

What are the resources in the commnuity?

Answer 12

• Lack of job: Prison Apprenticeship pathway: government announced plans to introduce this to offer prisoners opportunities that will count towards the completion fo a formal apprenticeship on release. This was announced in 2016, implemented in 2019 and is still in the pilot stages. No job means more reoffending and less social control
• Lack of money: Prisoners receive £76 if they are entitled to receive a discharge grant. This has remained fixed at £46 since 1997. In 2021, this was increased to £76. Thousands more prisoners are ineligible concluding those released on remand and people serving less than 25 days
• Lack of accommodation: If you live in a council house funded by housing benefits, and are sentenced to less than 13 weeks then you can leave prison knowing you can return too this property. If you are sentenced to more than 13 weeks then prisoners have very little chance of keeping their tenancy open until the end of the sentence and lose their housing. 11% released from custody in 2014/15 had not settled accommodation. This lack of support and resources may mean ripeness are tempted to return to crime

Question 13

What is the limitation of finance?

Answer 13

Without adequate finance to fund their operations, agencies will be unable to achieve effective soical conto=rl

Question 14

How are the police limited by finance?

Answer 14

The police budget from 2010-18 was cut overall by 19% these cuts have led to the fall of 20,000 in police numbers and in the same period there is a national shortage of detectives
IMPACT: Less officers on patrol so deterrence isn’t achieved and stopping crime, wont be enough officers to detect, investigate crime and arrest, may be tempted to drop serious cases because they take a long time e.g, rape case - 129 days, criminal damage - 2 days
His majesties inspectorate of constabulary said the shortage of detective amounts to a national crisis

Question 15

How are the prisons limited by finance?

Answer 15

Between 2010-18 the prions budget fell by 16%. in the same time, staff levels have fallen by 15% and many of the more experienced prison officers have left the service
IMPACT: reduced social control, not enough officers and there is overcrowding –> riots like brum, not enough prison so not as much deterrence for prisoners –> patrol, might not be able to afford educational courses, not enough prison officers so less can go to the educational courses because no one to supervise explaining 60% recidivism rate, response times slower meaning more harm can be caused by fights

Question 16

How is the CPS limited by finance?

Answer 16

Between 2010-18 budget cut by 1/4 and lost 1/3 of staff
IMPACT: less workers to apply full code test, takes longer to prosecute and convict, in one case it took 600 hours to analyse a smartphone, lack of staff means they might drop cases, evidence may not be checked properly so if inadmissible offender acquitted, accused of downgrading cases to magistrates but they have less sentencing power so are a risk to society

Question 17

How are charities and pressure groups limited by finance?

Answer 17

If they don’t receive public donation, they are unable to function. Gov grands are being reduce. Charities have lost more than £3.8B in grants from gov over last decade, public donations decreased due to cost of living
IMPACT: Cannot fund rehabilitation services without funding, less campaigning - less awareness - government won’t make changes, won’t be able to fund further projects, can’t train staff to rehabilitate

Question 18

How are the judiciary limited by finance?

Answer 18

• Can lead to a floating trial - more trials listed than courtrooms leading to a backlog
• Fewer judges and courtrooms but more violent crime
• 41,000 cases waiting to be heard in Crown and over 500,000 in Magistrates
• Courtesies aren’t carried out e.g., not knowing process of court
• Cases are dropped and people walk free, justice budget cut by 25%
• Social control isn’t enforced as criminals are set free meaning they can commit more crime and are more likely to because no consequences

Question 19

How are the probation limited by finance?

Answer 19

• Privatisation - Serco, bid for control
• Whistleblowers at Serco blame 40% staff cuts for pressures on the service
• Not enough staff
• Consistent complaints of inaccurate and late reporting
• 2/3 of prion leavers received treatment for drug misuse while in custody but didn’t continue to receive on release
• HM inspectorate of probation reported heavy workloads with some managing 70 cases
• Practitioners did not aways have time to examine individuals back stories and identify factors that could help support them into recover, stay safe and move away from drug-related offending. Made too few recommendations for treatment
• 2/3 of practitioners interviewed during inspection felt they needed more training on impact of drugs and how to support individuals with trauma

Social control is less likely to be achieved particularly in drug issues

Question 20

What is the limitation local and national polcies?

Answer 20

When a new law makes a particular crime into a priority, this is likely to mean that other offences are neglected

National government policies: gun, knife and gang initiative. Introduced new offences, such as gang injunctions to improve prosecution rtes of gang related violence. Dedicated £1.2M to fund support workers in this area. Led to focus on these crimes and letting others bypass

Local policies: Hate crime and anti-terror - Sadiq Khan Mayor of London launched placing plans outlining a series of policing aimed at tackling hate crimes, and arming an anti-terror squad. Due to the terror attacks at the time, as well as the current hate crime other crimes ignored

Question 21

What is the limitation of the environmnet?

Answer 21

All too often, offenders return to the same social circle, involving drug taking and reoffending. According to the Prison Reform Trust, people are less likely to reoffend if they receive family visits when they are in prison yet only 68% have these. Offenders are less likely to reoffend if they live with their immediate family on release but only 61% do. Only 1/4 has a job to go to when released only 12% of employers surveyed said they had employed somebody with a criminal record in the past 3 years

Question 22

What would marxists say about the limitation of the environment?

Answer 22

The bourgeoisie controls the rules of society to prevent the proletariat from achieving in life, so they have no other option but to commit crimes

Question 23

What is the limitation of crime committed by those with moral imperatives?

Answer 23

Offenders can commit crime as they believe it is morally correct to do so e.g., assisted suicide, terrorism, murder of a rapist

Compassionate motive: believed they must offend out of compassion with a strong motive

Anit-vivisection protesters also believe their actions are the right thing to do. Luke Steele has been twice imprisoned for attacks on labs that carried out animal testing

Question 24

What case links to crime committed by those with moral imperatives?

Answer 24

Kay Gilderdale: administered drugs to her daughter to help her die via assisted suicide. This drastic action was taken bc her daughter had been seriously ill for 17 years an her wanting to die. Compassionate motive

Question 25

What would functionalists say about moral imperatives?

Answer 25

It is good because it allows society to progress. Social values would never emerge without it. No change would be possible. The law breaking drew attention to the injustice of denying women the vote and promoted equality between sexes. Suffragettes have moral imperatives. Social control was never going to be achieved because you will never be able to rehabilitate them because they wouldn’t stop until they got the vote