Police Prioritisation

Question 1

Reasons for police prioritisation

Answer 1

• limited resources
• local community
• the media
• home office/government
• they may not believe the report
• lack of evidence
• the victim may refuse to press charges
• they may not wish to investigate eg not a priority to them personally

Question 2

What are possible consequences of under-reporting on police prioritisation?

Answer 2

• if reporting for a particular crime is low, police may decide to prioritise it and make that crime a big focus, to bring victims forward.
• on the other hand, un-reporting may mean they are not even aware of the issue and so prioritise wrong areas.

Question 3

Why are crimes like sexual abuse not prioritised enough by police?

Answer 3

they can be difficult to prosecute and are therefore often not prioritised. it can also be hard to find evidence when it happened in someones childhood, years ago.

Question 4

Why and when was Operation Yewtree set up?

Answer 4

Following an ITV documentary about sexual abuse committed by Jimmy Savile. The operation was set up in response to people reporting historical cases of sexual abuse.

Question 5

What did Operation Yewtree investigate?

Answer 5

It was initially to investigate Jimmy Savile but was later widened to include other celebrities such as Gary Glitter and Max Clifford.

Question 6

How does this relate to the dark figure of crime?

Answer 6

Crime statistics are inaccurate because not all crimes are reported or known to the police. This can lead to the police not prioritising a crime, as they’re not aware of the full extent to which it is happening.

Question 7

Give an example of when police priorities were wrong.

Answer 7

Raneem Oudeh called 999 14 times to report that her ex was threatening her. She called 4 times on the night she dies, but was told it wasn’t a priority as he wasn’t currently there so was not an active threat. That night, he stabbed Raneem and her mother to death.