Modern Britain (1900-present)

Question 1

Has crime really increased since 1900?

Answer 1

Crime has increased since 1900 but not as quickly as headlines suggest, because:
- Crime is now easier to report
- There are better incentives for reporting crime (e.g. insurance and reclaiming items)
- There is more understanding with regards to social issues (e.g. domestic abuse), therefore there is more reporting. The police are also now better at handling these cases
- In the past crimes were often dealt with informally, now most are recorded

These factors artificially increase the number of recorded crimes

Question 2

What is the difference between burglary and robbery?

Answer 2

• Burglary is breaking into or trespassing on property in order to commit theft
• Robbery is theft with violence

Question 3

What are the different forms of crime committed in the modern day?

Answer 3

• Car crime: Car theft, not paying road tax, no car insurance, not having a license and not having a road-worthy car.
• Murder
• Hate crimes: victims targeted for their race, sexual orientation, religion or disability
• Terrorism
• Violent crime and sexual offences
• Theft, burglary and shoplifting
• Computer crime: theft and online fraud

Question 4

How has smuggling changed since the 18th Century?

Answer 4

The main purpose of smuggling is still to be able to buy expensive goods at a lower price, but the nature of it has changed:
- The government do not heavily rely on import tax due to the introduction of income tax, therefore it is not their biggest issue
- More custom officers are present, and technology aids their searches
- Transport has greatly developed, making it harder to catch smugglers
- People smuggling now occurs
- There is much more money and sophistication in smuggling, and illegal items are often smuggled rather than tea, cloth and wine.

Question 5

What new methods of law enforcement have been introduced since 1900?

Answer 5

• Alarm systems
• CCTV
• Police cars
• Helicopters
• Neighbourhood watch

Question 6

Who were Conscientious Objectors and how were they treated in WW1and WW2?

Answer 6

Conscientious Objectors (COs) refuse to take part in war or conflict for moral reasons. Many refuse on religious grounds such as ‘Thou shalt not kill’.

WW1:
- COs had to appear before a local tribunal to state their case, and the tribunal was filled with retired soldiers and unsympathetic individuals. Some were given work at home whilst others were given dangerous non-fighting jobs, like driving ambulances on the front line.
- Those who refused were put in prison (solitary confinement, hard labour and a long sentence)
- COs were stripped of their right to vote until 1926.
- The public supported the war unanimously and regarded COs as cowards and sometimes physically attacked them.

WW2:
- Tribunals no longer included ex-soldiers, and a greater effort was made to give COs alternative work such as farming.
- They were only sent to prison as a last resort
- The British public were slower to change their attitude than the government however, COs were attacked in newspapers, sacked from jobs, openly accused of cowardice and treason and were sometimes attacked in the street

Question 7

What was policing like in 1900?

Answer 7

• Numbers and organisation: 200 local police forces, all run different, little cooperation between forces and only 40,000 officers
• Training and recruitment: Military drill, all officers were male, recruits were poorly paid and of a low quality
• Transport: Walked a beat of up to 20 miles a day (patrol on foot, had to be in certain areas at a certain time)
• Equipment: Whistle to call for help, truncheon to beat people and pistols were only used in an emergency
• Crime detection: Eyes and ears of the officer, witnesses
• Record keeping: No national record of criminals, local record keeping was poor
• Main duties: Dealing with crimes like petty theft and dealing with drunkenness

Question 8

How has policing changed since 1900?

Answer 8

• Numbers and organisation: Triple the amount of officers, many more females officers and ethnic minorities within the force
• Training and recruitment: New recruits undertake fourteen weeks of basic training at the National Police Training College, local forces have specialists to train recruits.
• Transport: Cars, motorbikes and helicopters are available as well as foot and bikes on a local level
• Equipment: Batons, pepper spray, CS gas (for violent criminals), specialised armed police present for serious cases, two way radio communication with the police headquarters
• Crime detection tools: Blood samples, DNA samples, CCTV, automatic number plate recognition
• Record keeping: Since 1974, the Police National Computer collects together all databases (e.g. DNA, fingerprints, missing persons files) and officers have access to national and local information 24 hours a day
• Main duties: Deal with increasingly non-crime related incidents: anti-social behaviour, drunkenness, mental health situations and controlling crowds at football games. This is due to specialisation of police forces such as Fraud squad, Drugs squad and Counter-Terrorist squads.

Question 9

What forms of crime prevention are used in the modern day?

Answer 9

• Each force employs Crime Prevention Officers (CPOS), who advise the local community on crime prevention: alarm systems, locks etc.
• There is emphasis on catching young offenders early and encouraging them to move away from crime
• In 2007, Neighbourhood Watch became a national programme, where members of the local community report suspicious activity to the police, who can follow up and investigate.

Question 10

What changes were made to prison before 1947?

Answer 10

By 1900, prisons started to move away from the separate system and silent system:
- The use of pointless hard work was abolished in 1902
- Solitary confinement ended in 1922
- Reform became a greater focus, so teachers were employed to help inmates gain work after release
- Diet, heating and conditions in cells improved and more visits were allowed
- The first open prison was built in 1933 for minor offenders; rules were more relaxed and prisoners were able to leave the grounds in order to work, this would prepare them for ordinary life back in the community.

Question 11

Why were changes made to prisons in the early 20th Century?

Answer 11

• Fear of Crime had declined so the government were under less pressure to make prisons more harsh
• There was belief that the certainty of arrest was the deterrent, not prison
• People did not believe that criminals inherited habits anymore, they believed it was due to criminal environments or poverty, which raised hopes that treatment and education might reform inmates

Question 12

How have prisons changed after 1947?

Answer 12

Prison population rose steeply after the 1940s, this was not only due to an increased crime rate, politicians were also reacting to public claims that they were too soft on crime (fear of crime increased):
- The average length of sentences was increased - the government were attempting to be harsher on crime
- There is an increase chance of a prison sentence for certain crimes, such as sexual, violent or drug related offences
- The number of people on remand (awaiting trial) has increased

Question 13

How have conditions changed within prisons since 1947?

Answer 13

• Overcrowding peaked in the 1980s and prisons have remained overcrowded every year since 1994.
• Reduced budgets and difficulties in recruiting has lead to less staff looking after more prisoners
• There has been an increase in the number of serious assaults and deaths in custody
• There has been a decrease in purposeful activity, such as work or the education of prisoners

Question 14

What are the drawbacks to prisons?

Answer 14

• High rates of re-offending
• Younger prisoners can learn from older criminals which results in further crime when they are released
• Prison is very expensive for the government: inmates have to be housed and fed, staff have to be paid, and prisoner’s families will need benefits if the prisoner is their main earner.
• Prison does not deal with the social or personal problems that caused the person to commit the crime in the first place, so they re-enter the same environment as before.

Question 15

What non-custodial alternatives to prison are available?

Answer 15

• Electronic tagging: Courts and police set a curfew which the person must adhere to, police observe the movements of the person to see if they abide by the curfew and if not, they could be recalled to prison.
• Community service: Offenders are required to do between 40 and 300 hours unpaid work in the community
• Parole: Prisoners no longer had to serve their entire sentence if they behaved well
• Probation: Offenders would report once a week to the police and meet with a probation officer and if they did not re-offend there would be no further punishment

Question 16

How did the treatment of young offenders change in the 20th Century?

Answer 16

In the 20th Century, ideas of reform came about and people believed young offenders should be caught early and reformed before they turn into criminals.

• 1902: First Borstal opened for under 18s, like a strict boarding school to reform criminals
• 1932: First Approved Schools were opened for offenders under 15, trained in skills like bricklaying
• 1948: Attendance centres introduced for offenders aged 10-21. Covered basic literacy, numeracy and life skills like writing job applications
• 1959: Approved schools were closed after children rioting and absconding
• 1982: Borstals were abolished and youth detention centres were introduced, military drill and discipline were intended to provide a short, sharp shock. This failed to deter and offending rates increased.

Question 17

How are young offenders treated today?

Answer 17

Despite changes to youth justice, re-offending rates remain high:
- Youth courts work with the police, schools, social workers and probation officers to prevent a young person from settling into a life of crime
- Attendance centres are the young offender’s last chance, if they commit further offences they are put in custody
- Custody is seen as the last resort, Young Offenders Institutions (YOIs) operate many of the same rules as prisons

Question 18

What factors resulted in the abolition of the death penalty in 1965?

Answer 18

• Government: When the government abolished the Bloody Code in the 1820s and 30s, the use of the death penalty declined, and in 1957 the number of crimes punishable by death was reduced, further reducing the use of the death penalty.
• Attitudes in society: After the horrors of the Holocaust, executions seemed wrong and were associated with Hitler’s Nazi Germany. There was also large public outcry with the cases of Timothy Evans and Derek Bentley.
• Political: The United Nations issued its declaration of human rights after WW2, which the UK signed up to. It stated that everyone had the right to life, so the UK were under pressure to abolish the death penalty to fulfil the declaration
• Religious: Execution was against the teachings of different religions and the Christian idea of forgiveness and sanctity of life.

Question 19

Case Study: What was the Derek Bentley case and what impact did it have on the abolition of the death penalty?

Answer 19

• Derek Bentley suffered from epilepsy and learning difficulties - he struggled to hold onto the most basic of jobs.
• Bentley and his sixteen year old friend Chris Craig burgled a warehouse one night, and the police pursued them as they fled. Craig fired upon the officers, killing one, after Bentley apparently shouted ‘Let him have it Chris’.
• Both were arrested and charged with murder, but Craig was under 18 so too young to be hanged. Bentley was found guilty despite not killing anybody and was sentenced to death.
• Although 200 MPs signed a petition for his punishment to be withdrawn, the Home Secretary went ahead with it and Bentley was hanged on the 28th January 1953.
• There was public outcry over the case, and it became a contributing factor to the abolition of the death penalty.