Unit4 3.3 Flashcards
Examine limitations of agencies in achieving social control- repeat offenders/recidivism
-If offenders fail to rehabilitate and continue to commit crime, then social control will never be achieved.
-Recidivism is one of the reasons the prison population has dramatically increased over the last 20 years.
-According to the prison reform trust between 1993 and 2015 the prison population in England and wales has nearly doubled with an extra 41,000 people behind bars, taking the number of people in custody at the end of June 2016 to 89332
-anyone leaving custody who has served 2 days or more is now required to serve a minimum of 12 months under supervision in the community
-as a result the number of people recalled to custody following their release has increased dramatically.
-the recall population is now 19% higher than when the changes were introduced in feb 2015 with nearly 1100 more people
- the bromley briefings prison fact file for winter 2021 shows that repeat offending limits social control being achieved by prisons. For instance…
- reconviction rates within a year of release from prison is very high at 48%
- however those serving short sentences of less than 12 months have even higher reconviction rates at 63% for adults.
- reconviction rates for woman who were released within the last year after serving a short prison sentence jumps to 73%
-reconviction rates for children released within a year from prison and serving a short sentence is 77%
-the annual total economic and social costs of reoffending is estimated to be 18.1 billion
The social learning theory may explain some of these statistics due to offenders learning and copying from others in the prison system . Prisoners can become better, criminals learning from skills from others to encourage them to continue offending upon release.
Examine limitations of agencies in achieving social control- repeat offenders/recidivism facts
According to the prison reform trust between 1993 and 2015 the prison population in England and wales has nearly doubled with an extra 41,000 people behind bars, taking the number of people in custody at the end of June 2016 to 89332
-anyone leaving custody who has served 2 days or more is now required to serve a minimum of 12 months under supervision in the community
-as a result the number of people recalled to custody following their release has increased dramatically.
-the recall population is now 19% higher than when the changes were introduced in feb 2015 with nearly 1100 more people
- the bromley briefings prison fact file for winter 2021 shows that repeat offending limits social control being achieved by prisons. For instance…
- reconviction rates within a year of release from prison is very high at 48%
- however those serving short sentences of less than 12 months have even higher reconviction rates at 63% for adults.
- reconviction rates for woman who were released within the last year after serving a short prison sentence jumps to 73%
-reconviction rates for children released within a year from prison and serving a short sentence is 77%
-the annual total economic and social costs of reoffending is estimated to be 18.1 billion
Examine limitations of agencies in achieving social control- repeat offenders/recidivism theory relating
The social learning theory may explain some of these statistics due to offenders learning and copying from others in the prison system . Prisoners can become better, criminals learning from skills from others to encourage them to continue offending upon release.
Examine limitations of agencies in achieving social control-civil liberties legal barriers
Civil liberties are basic rights and freedoms granted to citizens of a country through the law-they include…
-Freedom of speech
-freedom of movement
-freedom from arbitrary arrest
-Freedom of assembly
-Freedom of association
-Freedom of religious worship
Civil liberties can limit social control as people have the right to freedom of speech, freedom of movement and more. It can also be seen as a restriction on agencies such as the police in achieving social control. For instance, there are foreign nationals with criminal convictions who can’t be removed from the UK due to the EU regulations. Deportation cannot take place due to prisoners being in danger in their home country.
Examine limitations of agencies in achieving social control-civil liberties legal barriers theory
The Marxist theory of criminality would suggest that these laws are necessary to protect the class from the ruling elite, making arbitrary judgments against them
Examine limitations of agencies in achieving social control-access to resources and support
Access to resources and support limits prisoners from being able to rehabilitate and therefore bring about social control. Upon release from prison an offender may experience problems with finance, accommodation and employment or training opportunities.
Examine limitations of agencies in achieving social control-access to resources and support-facts from the prison reform trusts winter 2021 bromley briefings prison fact file
- literacy levels among the prison population remain significantly lower than the general population. Nearly 2/3 of people entering prison were assessed as having literacy skills expected of. 11 year old more than 4x higher than the general adult population
-78,000 adults in the prison system participated in education in the 2017-18 academic year- a drop of 12% on the previous year - just over a 1/3 of prisons received a positive rating from inspectors in 2019/20 for purposeful activity work continuing the decline from half the prisons in 2016/17
Examine limitations of agencies in achieving social control-access to resources and support-plans
The government has announced plans to introduce a prisoner apprenticeship pathway to offer prisoners opportunities that will count towards the completion of a formal apprenticeship upon release.
Some people are entitled to receive a discharge grant to help them on release but this has remained fixed at 46 since 1997. More prisoners are ineligible including those released on remand, fine defaulters or people serving less than 15 days
Entitlement to housing benefits stops for all sentenced prisoners expected to be in prison for more than 13 weeks meaning many prisoners have very little chance of keeping their tendency open until the end of their sentence and lose their housing. One in 10 people released from custody in 2014/15 had no settled accommodation
Examine limitations of agencies in achieving social control-access to resources and support-what happens if there is a lack of it
This may mean prisoners are tempted to return to crime. According to the social justice charity NACRO, the national association of the care and resettlement of offenders, out of the 38,000 people they helped in 2016/17, 48% of those housed had a primary or secondary support need to manage the risk of reoffending
Examine limitations of agencies in achieving social control-finance
The public sector funcding is inevitably limited and cuts in budget will impact on the effectiveness of agencies providing social control. The police service has faced cuts in its budget over recent years and sees nos ign of money being increased over the next few years.
Headlines showing this…
Police budgets slashed by 300 despite top officers warnings (Barrett 2014)
- police forces all face major budget cuts (bbc news 2015)
- watchdog says police cuts have left forces in perilous state (grierson 2017)
According to the House of Commons briefing paper, police funding number 7279 25th February 2016 the central grant to police forces has decreased in 25% in real terms from 2010-11 to 2014-15. Inevitably this will limit the number of police officers available to investigate and detect crimes. Her majesties inspectorate of constabulary issued a warning that a shortage of detectives and investigators amounts to a national crisis
The hm prison service suffers from budget cuts too. According to the prison phone website 2017 from 2011-12 to 2014-15 the national offender management service decreased its budget by a quarter which equated to 900 million. Clearly this had a significant impact on the prison population including incidences of suicide, self harm and attacks on staff. The prison officers association has warned that inmates with mental health problems are in extra danger without a boost in resources.
In august 2016 police riot squad officers were sent to the hmp the mount twice in 24 hours. According to the daily telegraph newspaper(farmer 2017) prisoners of weapons, seized control of Nashwing. Staff shortages and an extended lock down of prisoners are reported to have left the prison as a disaster waiting to happen. Clearly a lack of finance impacts on the ability to keep social control inside prisons
Self harms
Examine limitations of agencies in achieving social control-local national policies
Local police forces prioritise certain crimes in preference to others. This would mean that some crimes are not investigated. For instance, there have been allegations against the police suggesting they focus on trivial crime instead of serious offenses in order to meet government targets
From 2010 to 2015 the government promoted a policy to tackle knife, gun, and gang crimes. Introduced new offenses, such as injunctions to prevent a person from engaging in, encouraging or assisting related violence, to improve prosecution rates, and dedicated 1.2 million to fund support workers in this area. While it was appropriate to prioritize focusing on certain crimes and not others.
National policies may be set by the government the police have local policies too. Mayor of London in 2017 Sadiq khan launched policing plans in march 2017 outlining a series of policies aimed at tackling the hate crimes and boosting the metropolitan police armed anti terror squad.
The cps also focuses on certain policies over time. In august 2017 the head of the cops Alison Saunders indicated there would be a crackdown on social media hate crimes. The policy relates to all the different strands of hate crime, racist and religious, disability, homophobic, biphobic and transphobic. Official figures show a 20% rise in all forms of hate crime reported to police in the first quarter of 2017. However hate crimes are believed to be significantly under reported.
Examine limitations of agencies in achieving social control-environment
When prisoners are released from custody their home environment has a substantial impact on whether or not they stay out of prison. All too often offenders return to the same social circle involving drug taking or reoffending. There is a lack of employment available or a focus to lead them away from crime.
According to the prison reform trust 2016 people are less likely to reoffend if they receive family visits while they are in prison, yet 68% of prisoners had no visits. Also offenders are less likely to reoffend if they live with their immediate family upon release, only 61% do so.
Purposeful activity, including education work and other activities to aid rehabilitation while in prison further reduces the risk of reoffending. However fewer than half of prisoners received a positive rating from inspectators in 2015-16 for purposeful activity work (prison reform trust 2016).
Finally finding employment after being released from prison has an impact on an effective environment for offenders. However 1 in 4 people had a job to go on release from prison and only 12% of employers surveyed said they had employed somebody with a criminal record in the past 3 years.
Examine limitations of agencies in achieving social control-environment theory
From a Marxist perspective it could be argued that the bourgeoisie construct the rules of society to prevent the proletariat from achieving in life, so they have no other option but to commit crime
Examine limitations of agencies in achieving social control-crime committed by those with moral imperatives
A moral imperitative is a strongly felt principle that compels;s a person to act. In other words offenders can commit crime as they believe they are doing the right thing from a moral viewpoint.
Assisted suicide could be argued to be a crime committed with a compassionate motive. In the up helping someone to die is a criminal offence. However a family member may resort to such action if they believe its at the express wish of a victim
Anti vivisection protestors also believe their actions are the right thing to do. In attempts to protest at experiments on live animals their actions can result in criminal offenses. E.g. Luke Steele, head of the anti vivisection has twice been imprisoned for attacks on laboratories along with harassment and intimidation of laboratory workers.
Examine limitations of agencies in achieving social control-crime committed by those with moral imperatives theory
From a functionalist viewpoint some crimes can be positive and serve a function in society.the case of Kay gilderdale may produce boundary maintenance by showing what is acceptable within a society. This is where the majority of right minded, law abiding members in society would reaffirm their good values and produce social solidarity
