Public And Crime: Public Attitudes To The Criminal Justice System

Question 1

What is the criminal justice system?

Answer 1

The governmental organisations and practices which serve to both control crime and maintain control on the population. It includes punishment for violations of the law.

Question 2

What is the largest government department in the criminal justice system?

Answer 2

Ministry of Justice

Question 3

What other government agencies are there in the criminal justice system?

Answer 3

HM courts and tribunals services
CPS
HM prison service
Probation service
National Offender Management Service (NOMS)
Legal aid agency
Youth justice board
Home Office

Question 4

Public Attitudes of CJS:

Why is public opinion important?

Answer 4

It is the core principle of any democracy.
That public involvement part of the criminal justice system would be unable to operate: reporting of crime, witnesses at trial proceedings, jury system.
It is important for policing, sentencing and sentencing policy

Question 5

Name three case studies that have been affected by the importance of public opinion.

Answer 5

Case example 1: secure training orders (Jamie Bulger)
Case example 2: Megan’s law
Case example 3: child sex offender disclosure scheme

Question 6

Public Attitudes of CJS:

What was the case of Jamie Bulger and how did it affect legislation?

Answer 6

The murder of 2-year old James Bolger by Robert Thompson and John Venables (both 10) in 1993.
Moral condemnation through the media and hence, the public.
The age of criminal responsibility is 10 years old.
The media demonisation of children led to the introduction of Secure Training Orders for children between 12 and 14.
This led to a 30% increase in the population of incarcerated young offenders between 1993 and 1997.
Further measures: zero tolerance, boot camps, electronic monitoring, mandatory minimum sentences and naming and shaming of young offenders.

Question 7

Public Attitudes of CJS:

What is Megan’s Law?

Answer 7

Murder of Megan Kanka - sexual murder that attracted national attention.
Implementation of laws in USA requiring information to be made available to the public about registered sex offenders (e.g. name, whereabouts, address, nature of crime)

Question 8

Public Attitudes of CJS:

What was the case with the Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme?

Answer 8

Sarah Evelyn Isobel Payne was murdered by Roy Whiting. When he was found to be guilty, it also came out that he had a previous conviction for abducting and indecently assaulting an eight-year old girl.
A campaign began to make it legal for parents to be able to check the Sex Offenders Register so they could see if there was one living in the area.
The scheme was brought in as a modified version where parents can enquire about a named individual. This covered all of England and Wales by spring 2011.

Question 9

Name three examples of riots/protest that happened after public opinion was ignored.

Answer 9

Poll-tax rights in London in March 1990
Anti Iraq war protest 2003
University fee rights 2010

Question 9

What happens when listening to public opinion?

Answer 9

The public are generally not that informed or forcedly informed about the criminal justice system (green, 1996)
Opinion polls ‘top of the head’ in CSEW – 80% consider CJS too lenient
Media reports are often bias and very selective
If politicians inform policy based on vacillating opinion they can be seen as indecisive, however, if they set aside public opinion they can be seen as ineffective.

Question 10

Public Attitudes of CJS:

What is the “doctrine of less eligibility” (Sparks, 2000)?

Answer 10

This stated that prison conditions must be worse than the living conditions of the working poor in that society, especially relevant during times of high unemployment.

Question 11

What are the publics common misconceptions about the Criminal Justice System?

Answer 11

Belief crime is increasing
Overestimations in the rates of violent crime
Lack of knowledge regarding sentencing
Underestimation of the use of prison for serious offenders

Question 12

What did Mirlees-Black find out about public knowledge in 2000?

Answer 12

56% of respondents to 1998 British Crime Survey thought that 60% of adult males convicted of rape were sentenced when it is in fact 99%

Question 13

St Amand and Zambie, 2001 - public knowledge

Answer 13

The public appears to underestimate the severity of sentences that are handed down by the courts

Question 14

Public Attitudes of CJS:

What are the facilitating factors involved with increasing knowledge on CJS?

Answer 14

Having contact with the CJS
Having an interest in matters related to cjs
High levels of education

Question 15

Where does public knowledge of the CJS come from?

Answer 15

Direct experiences:
Jury Duty
Witnesses
Secondary Victimisation

versus

Indirect experiences:
Being a vicarious victim of crime
Knowing others who have been victims of crime
"common knowledge"
Media

Question 16

Matthews et al. (2004) - after jury service, increased/decreased confidence

Answer 16

Most jurors reported an increased understanding of the cjs
Were more positive regarding the jury system
Gave more positive reports regarding the competence of judges

Increased confidence associated with:
Jury diversity
Adherence to due process
The process being considered to be fair

Decreased confidence associated with:
Poorly prepared cases
Poor equality evidence
Hearing of cases considered to be minor

Question 17

Angle et al., 2003; Whitehead, 2001 - witnesses

Answer 17

75% of witnesses report being satisfied with their experience of the cjs.

Dissatisfaction was related to:
Feeling that they were taken for granted.
Intimidation by the process or the environment.

Experience as a witness and the way in which they are treated during their involvement with the court influences witnesses’ opinions of the cjs.

Question 18

Home Office, 2005; Myhill and Allen, 2002; Walby and Allen, 2004 - Secondary victimisation

Answer 18

Actions of the police, courts, and other parts of the cjs can have the effect of further victimising those who come to them as victims. e.g., unsympathetic, careless, hostile or embarrassing treatment.

Rates of victims reporting rape is around 15-20%

• fear of not being believe
• fear of intimidating investigative and trial process
• only 5.3% of reported cases result in conviction.

Question 19

Indirect experience: Media

Answer 19

Media main source for public knowledge of the cjs. (Roberts and Doobe, 1990; Surette, 1998).

Generally only reports what is newsworthy

Research suggests that a large proportion of the public cite media outlets, such as newspapers and television, as their main source of information regarding child sex offenders (Brown et al., 2008; Gavin, 2005; Kruse, 2007)

If an individual has limited knowledge about, or has very little opportunities to interact with a specific stereotyped group, then the individual will rely on the media portrayal of that group in order to learn more (Sanghara and Wilson, 2006)

Question 20

Indirect experience: Media and sexual offences

Answer 20

Media interest regarding crime, and in particular sexual offending, has grown dramatically over the past twenty years (Quinn et al., 2004) - this does not reflect the rate of reported sexual offences which have remained constant (Home Office, 2011).

Research has found that a small number of very high profile crimes account for a significant proportion of media reporting (Berry et al., 2012)

The media have also been found to often focus on extreme incidents of sexual offending that are rare and stereotypical in nature (Kruse, 2007; Olver and Barlow, 2010)

Question 21

Indirect experience: Media and the CJS

Answer 21

Gerbner et al., (1980) found that individuals who watch a large amount of television are more likely to:

• feel at greater threat from crime
• Believe crime is more prevalent than statistics indicate
• Take more precautions against crime

Regular viewers of crime drama are also more likely to fear crime (Dowler, 2003)

Frequent viewing and greater enjoyment of reality-based crime shows is related to holding punitive attitudes (Oliver and Armstrong, 1995)

Question 22

Improving knowledge about the CJS

Answer 22

It might be safe to presume that public knowledge of CJS is improved then attitudes will improve.

Chapman et al., (2002) conducted a study to see if public attitudes towards the CJS could be improved:

• those viewed a video about the CJS showed large increase in knowledge.
• significant increases observed in knowledge about crime trends, prison place costs, sentence length, and supervision of long-term prisoners on release.

Media would be the best vehicle for improving knowledge about the CJS.

Question 23

What are the difficulties about improving knowledge about the CJS?

Answer 23

Limited public awareness of campaigns resulting in low engagement with the information.
Media only likely to report sensational stories that are worth reporting.

Question 24

What did Hough et al. (1988) find about individual differences that affect public attitudes?

Answer 24

Age
Gender
Education
Ethnicity
Religion
Employment

Question 25

Public Attitudes of CJS:

What are the socio demographic issues?

Answer 25

Older people are more punitive than younger people (Hough and Moxon, 1985; Cullen et al, 1985).

Men more punitive and express less confidence in the CJS than women (Hough et al., 1988).

People with low educational attainment have a poor knowledge of the CJS (Mattinson and Mirrlees-black, 2000).

Black Americans more likely to find the CJS discriminatory than white Americans (Hough et al., 1988)

Manual workers and people with low educational attainment are more punitive (Hough and Moxon, 1985)

Muslims and Hindus more likely that Christians or Bhuddists to believe that the police do a good job (Jansson et al., 2007)

Question 26

Public Attitudes of CJS:

How does ideology and attitudes affect public opinion?

Answer 26

Research has found that:
People with highly conservative beliefs favour punitive sentences (e.g., Baron and Hartnagel, 1996; Stinchcombe et al, 1980).

Highly religious people or people with fundamentalist religious beliefs are more likely to be punitive (e.g. Grasmick et al, 1992)

People who believe in a just world are more likely to endorse punitive punishment (Finamore et al., 1987)

Question 27

Top of offence and punitiveness

Answer 27

Americans do not favour the death penalty for juvenile offenders (Sandy and McGarell, 1995)

People favour prison sentences for violent or sex offenders, not for petty theft (Jaccoby and Cullen, 1998)

Members of the public support the early release of non-violent offenders (Cumberland and Zamble, 1992)

Repeat offenders illicit little sympathy from members of the public (Roberts, 1996)

In Britain indications are people feel sentencing for burglary and rape are too lenient (Hough and Moxon, 1985; Hough and Roberts, 1998)