3.4 Flashcards
(17 cards)
1
Q
how do the police achieve social control?
A
- they take 5.7m cases to trail each year
- act as a general deterrence
2
Q
how don’t the police achieve social control?
A
- inefficient in investigating offences successfully (stephen lawrence)
- crime appears to be increasing
- dropped cases ( 2.6x as many cases on the day that they were reported in 2017 as they did in 2016
3
Q
why isn’t using statistics to evaluate the effectiveness of the police always valid?
A
- recording procedures have improved (could explain the rise in crime rates)
- counter evidence from the Crime Survey for England and Wales that crime rate has been falling for years.
- the dark figure
4
Q
why isn’t the media effective when it comes to the police?
A
- media reports can exaggerate to get more views - can cause the police to focus on those crimes and ignore other crimes
5
Q
how do the CPS achieve social control?
A
- prosecuted 80000 cases in the crown court and over 450000 cases in the magistrates court
- 84.1% of the defendants that it prosecuted were convicted
- the full code test provides a uniform and fair approach to its role
- brings an independent element to the charging and prosecution of offences - stops biases
6
Q
how don’t the CPS achieve social control?
A
- budget cuts by 25%, 1/3 of staff levels were reduced
- in 2018 the Guardian reported that the CPS’s specialist rape prosecutors had been advised to drop a number of supposedly ‘weak’ cases ( if they took 350 weak cases out of the system, their conviction rate woudl go up to 61%
7
Q
what cases are there that show that the CPS aren’t always successful in achieving social control?
A
- Damilola Taylor - failure to check reliability of witness evidence before court
- Liam Allen - failure to disclose of evidence on time leading to the case collapsing
8
Q
how does the judiciary achieve social control?
A
- they sentence offenders
experienced and highly qualified - to ensure consistency they use a system of precedent and follow sentencing guidelines
- hear about 130,000 cases a year and most result in safe and just verdicts and just sentences
9
Q
how don’t the judiciary achieve social control?
A
- the media present judges as old white, upper class males who are out of touch with society
- 71% of judges are male, more than half of judges are over 50
- judges can set unduly severe sentences e.g. the london riots
- the attorney General’s office said that 141 prison terms were increased in England and Wales in 2016 under the unduly lenient sentencing scheme
- the media have been quick to report on cases and suggest that the judiciary are ineffective in achieving social control
10
Q
how do prisons achieve social control?
A
- penal populism and politicians view ‘prison works’ from Michael Howard in the 90s onwards means that england and wales have highest rates of imprisonment in Western Europe and trend towards longer sentences
- retribution - prison is a punishment and removes freedom
- public protection - incapicitates prisoners
- positive and negative sanctions makes prisoners behave
- reconviction rate - about half dont reoffend within a year of release
11
Q
how don’t prisons achieve social control?
A
- the prison population has almost doubled from 43000 in 1993 to 83000 in 2019
- in 2018, 58% of prisons were overcrowded, which contributes to discontent and rule breaking
- budget was cute by 16% between 2010-18, so number of prison officers fell by 15% (not able to address rehabilitation needs, cant control drug use - 64 deaths in prison due to NPS, incidents of assaults, self harm and suicide have risen) - in 2018, 8400 assaults on staff, 22000 assaults on prisoners, 69 suicide
- major breakdpwns of order and loss of control by staff have increased (HMP Birmingham 2016)
12
Q
how does the probation service achieve social control?
A
- 34% of offenders on community service reoffend within a year - half of those sent to prison
- supervise 30000 offenders on community sentences, licence, parole a year
- they aim to supervise, monitor and rehabilitate
13
Q
how dont the probation service achieve social control?
A
- they were privatised with the introduction of CRCs
- only 54% of cases were supervised by the CRC compared with 70% of the NPS
- provide inadequate protection for victims and their children when domestic abusers were returned to the community
national shortage of probation officers
14
Q
what case suggest that the CPS arent always effective in achieving social control?
A
- David Bradden - murdered Conner Marshall while he was on probation order (he had missed a string of appointments and admitted he was drinking and had come off medication, his probation services officer has an excessive workload and failure of senior staff to supervise her properly
15
Q
how does Nacro achieve social control?
A
- ‘end friday release’
- provides accommodation for those released from prison and supports them to find long term accommodation
16
Q
how does women in prison achieve social control?
A
- delivers CARE programme (choices, actions and relationships and emotions) for women in prison for violent offending who have a history of mental health problems or substance misuse
- a free phone help line to provide a range of support for women in prison
17
Q
what are the gaps in provision from charities/pressure groups?
A
- voluntary organisations that only exist where people are concerned about a particular issue or group
- less concerned about offenders and focus on victims
- funding - donations
