Government responses

Question 1

Government responses to crime

Answer 1

• Develop and enforce policies
• Propose new laws
• Fund the police, the courts and
  prisons
• Fund some non-governmental
  organisations and programmes
  that work with offenders, victims
  and the general public

Question 2

Effective Government responses

Answer 2

• Takes a public health
  approach to violence
• Introduced a new laws to
  tackle specific crimes more
  effectively
• Told courts to reduce number
  of short prison sentences –
  reduced reoffending

Question 3

Public Health Approach to Violence

Answer 3

Treats violence like a disease, not just a crime.
Effective because:
* tackles the root causes of violence (traumatic childhoods, addiction, poverty)
* stops violence from spreading (among peers, from parent to child)
* The Scottish Government funds initiatives including No Knives Better Lives: led
to an 85% reduction in the number of young people handling an offensive
weapon from 2009 to 2019.
* May 2023: Scottish Government put more than £2 million into a new national
strategy, the Violence Prevention Framework, to coordinate initiatives
(including NKBL) to cut violent crime further.

Question 4

Tackling domestic abuse

Answer 4

Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018
* extended law to include emotional
and psychological abuse
* recognises abuse as pattern of
behaviour of perpetrator
* changed status of children from
witness to victim
Effective:
* 3 studies found new law better
reflects victims’ experiences
* domestic abuse decreased 1% in
2021-22 compared to previous year.

Question 5

Tackling domestic abuse Caledonian system

Answer 5

• supports men who have committed
  domestic abuse to change their
  behaviour
• part of a supervision requirement of a
  community payback order or release
  from prison.

Question 6

Cut short prison sentences

Answer 6

2011 Presumption against short prison sentences of 3 months or less
* increase in community sentences instead of prison – less disruption to family
life, employment and housing
* reduced pressure on prisons – increased rehabilitation within prisons
* credited with helping achieve a 19-year-low in reconviction rates (low of
26.4% in 2017-18).
2019 Presumption against short prison
sentences extended to sentences of up to 12
months. Too early to tell impact.

Question 7

Ineffective Government responses

Answer 7

• Under-funding of Police
  Scotland
• ‘Soft touch’ justice policies
• Lack of support for victims

Question 8

Under_funding Police

Answer 8

• Scottish Government responsible for
  funding Police Scotland.
• £74 million shortfall in funding this year.
• 800 officer and civilian staff jobs likely
  to be cut this year.
• Under-staffing is contributing to
  ineffective policing:
• Police Scotland failed to attend 1 in 4
  house break-ins last year.
• Clear up rate only 54% (2021/22).

Question 9

“Soft touch” justice policies

Answer 9

The Scottish Government has introduced policies that have resulted in more
lenient sentences:
* Sentencing young people guideline
* Presumption against short periods of imprisonment order – extended to
prison sentences of up to 12 months.
Offenders given community sentences instead of prison – but a high number
are not completed fully.
* 24,000 community payback orders breached in last 9 years.
Reconviction rate increased nearly 2 percentage points to 28.3% in 2018-19.
Ineffective because lenient sentences do not deter criminals or give
victims justice.

Question 10

Lack of support for victims

Answer 10

Scottish Conservative Party says: SNP latest budget spent more than twice
as much on ‘offender services’ as it did on victim support.
Victim Support Scotland:
* victims and their families are less represented than elsewhere in the UK
* don’t feel they are being heard due to the lack of an official role at a
national level, advocating for their rights.
* calling for the Scottish Government to introduce a Victims’ Commissioner
Government responses ineffective because it is not mitigating the impact
of crime on victims effectively.