Topic 6: Limitations of Social Control Agencies

Question 1

The limitation of Police

Answer 1

Finance and Budget Cuts:
Following the 2008 financial austerity policies - 19% budget cut for police

Privatisation:
G4S (private police force) received a £284 million contract to be in charge of security for the London 2012 Olympic Games. This was described as a shambles as many officers simply did not know where they were supposed to be.

Staffing and Workload:
2010-2018 = 20,000 police lost their job

Local and National Policies:
2010-15 = Gov launched a national policy prioritising knife, gun and gang crime (national)

Legal Barriers:
Suspects of crime have right to silence during questioning. Civilians are protected from arbitrary arrest

Moral Imperative:
Gov introduced a statutory offence of public nuisance and created powers for the police to place conditions on unjustifiable noisy protests and increased the sentences for obstructing the highway

Lack of Expertise:
police officers with less than 5 years of experiences now make up almost half of some forces

Prejudice and Discrimination:
Met police made 77% of all searches of black people in the year ending march 2021

Question 2

Limitation of the CPS

Answer 2

Finance and Budget Cuts:
Following 2008 financial austerity policies - funding cut by a 1/4

Staffing and Workload:
as a result of budget cuts, CPS lost a 1/3 of their staff leading to cases being downgraded

Local and National Policies:
August 2017 - head of CPS indicated a ‘crackdown’ on social media hate crimes

Legal Barriers and Civil Liberties:
Right to fair trial - have to disclose all evidence even if it might help the defence

Moral Imperatives:
May be pressure not to charge in cases where crime is committed for a moral imperative

Lack of expertise and negligence:
There is a shortage of solicitors in the UK meaning people don’t get the free legal aid they are allowed

Prejudice and discrimination:
Females are 26% more likely to be released on bail than males

Question 3

Limitation of Judiciary

Answer 3

Local and National Policies:
Sentencing guidelines provided by sentencing council - judges and magistrates must sentence within these

Legal Barriers and Civil Liberties:
all courts in the UK must interpret and give effect to the law in a way which is as close to the Human Rights act as possible

Moral Imperatives:
Perverse decisions - jury could find not guilty if the person is committing a crime they believe is morally acceptable e.g. R v Kronlid

Lack of expertise: Judiciary only interpret laws so they may not fully understand cases and this is a lack of expertise as they don’t have to be legally trained.

Prejudice and Discrimination:
Males drug offenders are twice as likely to be imprisoned as females under the similar circumstances

Question 4

Limitation of Prisons

Answer 4

Finance and Budget Cuts:
16% budget cut in prisons following 2008 crisis

Privatisation:
Tend to generally be more dangerous than public prisons. Privately-run prisons have been more likely to have overcrowded conditions than public sector prisons.

Staffing and Workload:
Prison staff has fallen by 15% = creates less opportunities for prisoners to be rehabilitated

Recidivism:
Adults released from custodial sentences of less than 12 months had a proven reoffending rate of 53.9%.

Access to resources:
Education in 75% of prisons is rated inadequate or requires improvement by OFSTED

Environment:
According to Prison Reform Trust, people are less likely to reoffend if they have family visits in prison, but 68% of prisoners do not have any visits

Legal Barriers and Civil Liberties:
Prisoners have rights, including
able to spend between 30 mins to an hour outside each day
being able to get in contact with a solicitor
Prisoners are still human and must have their human rights protected

Lack of Expertise and Negligence:
Not enough training for staff - Bank staff being used due to staffing shortages

Prejudice and Discrimination:
Black prisoners experience racism from white prison staff

Question 5

Limitation of Probation:

Answer 5

Finance and Budget Cuts:
Government planned to cut £148 million of funds to probation service between 2014-2016

Privatisation:
Community rehabilitation companies (CRCs) provide private probation services. To increase profits they cut down on spending which impacts their ability to achieve social control. According to the 2018 probation service inspection report, 19 out of 21 CRCs were not meeting targets.

Staffing and Workload:
national staff shortage, over-reliance on agency staff who may be underqualified.

Recidivism:
In 2018, 68% of reoffences was within 6 months of being placed into the probation scheme.

Access to resources:
Sufficient support for drug misuse only offered in 50% of case

Environment:
Help for accommodation was sufficient in 68% of cases, meaning 30% were not given sufficient support to find housing

Lack of Expertise and Negligence:
Domestic abusers have been released into the community with no supervision, putting prior victims at risk. Many CRCs hold probation meetings over the telephone rather than face-to-face. This means officers and offenders do not develop a rapport.

Question 6

Limitation of Charities:

Answer 6

Finance and Budget Cuts:
Charities have lost around £3.8 billion in grants from the government in the last 10 years

Local and National Policies:
As Charities are voluntary organisations, they only exist where people are concerned about a particular issue or group.
It can mean that it is specific to an area.