Introduction to Criminology - Penal Populism and Politics of crime Flashcards
From the 1980s onwards what was the criminal justice agencies encouraged to from?
Patnerships and inter-agency groupings and, more importantly the wider community was itself also encouraged to take responsibility for the fight against crime.
What subsequently happened due to this encouragement?
The prison numbers rose which led to new legislation concerning sentencing in 1991.
What is the Woolf report?
This was established in the aftermath in the aftermath of the Strange-ways and other prison riots.
It said that the problems of overcrowding and poor conditions caused the issues inside of prisons among prisoners.
What was Tony Blairs 1993 ‘Tough on crime’ campaign?
The aim was for prisons was detternece on crime, this would result in a rise in prison population. Like the American CJS
What is penal populism?
Where policies are adapted in a way that will make them the most popular with the public.
Which is why it is used when politicians use it for their own advantage to gain support from the general public.
What are the state and Government?
Public services (state) politicians who temporarily run the state and are elected by the general public (GOV)
What is the process of compromise?
Removes the state from its focus. How we resolve conflict and involve compromise.
Protesters - violence or political
Destruction of property, psychological and mental abuse is this all violence? No its physical harm.
What is Social and public activity?
Group decisions
Mutual boycott
Agreement and discussions
Through individual actions collection of ideas gather which leads to agreements/decisions.
What are the rule of Law assumptions?
- Everyone is bound by the law
- All persons are equal before the law
- Law and order must be maintained
- Legal redress is provided for those with complaints
- The law and legal processes and personnel should be independent and free from political interference
What is populist punitiveness?
The notion of politicans tapping into and using their own purposes what they belive to be the public’s generally punitive stance. (Bottoms, 1995:40)
What did Roberts et a., 2003:5 say about penal populists?
That it allows the electoral advantage of policy to take precedence over its penal effectiveness
What are some named laws that have come from pressure groups/groud level?
- Clare’s Law - Sexual offender disclosure scheme.
- Finn’s Law - increasing the penalty to animal cruelty and working dogs are protected.
- Helen’s Law - Preventing those who committed murder or explicit images of children parole if the defendant didn’t say where the body is or who the children in the photos.
- Harper’s Law - Manadatory life sentence if someone kills an emergency workers whilst committing a crime.
How do you create a new law?
when creating a new offence departments must be satisfied that the creation of a new criminal offence is both proportionate and necessary to the policy objective they are trying to achieve. (Ministry of justice and cabinet office)
What is the Policy cycle?
Problem - A situation or condition exists which is causing a problem for a category of people or society as a whole. The important thing here is that the problem is recognised as a problem by policy-makers.
Problem Defintion - Clearly define what the problem is, who is and what the impact of the problem is. Determining objectives and goals based on this definition.
Solution and resources - A range of options for tackling the problems and achieving the desired goals and objectives. These options should be accompanied by relative costs and benefits of each.
Value-free decision -Select course of action which bests fits goals and objectives without prejudice or bias. Outline the policy cleary so that those implementing this course of action can do so without ambiguity.
Evaluation - Assess the impact of implementation, economic efficiency and efficiency evaluation.
Revision - Amend the policy to better address the goals and objectives.
What do Conservatives focus on when tackling crime?
Being tough on crime including anti-social behaviour.
- hot spot policing
- Expansion of community payback and electronic tagging
- Power to evict repeatedly disruptive neighbours.
