ac4.1 sociological influences on policy

Question 1

how has right realism influenced policy

Answer 1

-Situational Crime Prevention SCP
-> aim= to reduce opportunity for crime by increasing the risks, based on rational choice by target hardening measures (such as locking cars, security guards etc)

Question 2

what is a problem with SCP

Answer 2

displacement
->criminals will look for an alternative target which may involve more vulnerable targets

Question 3

how has right realism influenced prison policy

Answer 3

“Prison works” -> from 1990s Governments began to take the view that tougher penalities are needed

Question 4

what are the 2 functions right realists see of prisons

Answer 4

1. Incapacitation: criminals become incapable of harming the public
2. Deterrence: criminals think twice before committing an offence due to the punishment

Question 5

when was the Crime (sentences) Act brought in by the conservatives

Answer 5

1997

Question 6

what did the 1997 Crime Act introduce

Answer 6

minimum sentences

Question 7

what were the minimum sentences introduced by the 1997 Crime Act

Answer 7

-automatic life sentence for 2nd serious sexual/violent offence
-minimum 7 years for 3rd class, class A drug trafficking conviction
-minimum 3 years for 3rd, domestic burglary conviction

Question 8

what was introduced when Tony Blair’s new labour came into power in 1997 (2)

Answer 8

1.ASBO: anti social behaviour order -> a court order which can be obtained by local authorities in order to restrict the behaviour of a person likely to cause harm or distress to the public
2.Curfews

Question 9

give stats on reoffending rates (right realism)

Answer 9

since 2008/09 re-offending rates fluctuated between a high of 31.6% in 2008/09 to 24% in 2021/21

Question 10

how have sociological theories influenced policy
(3)

Answer 10

-policies to tackle poverty: better welfare policies, wages + job security would reduce crime by providing equal opportunities
-equal opportunities in school: treating working-class pupils equally would reduce failure rate, making it less likely they would join a subculture
-education in prison: half of UK prisoners have a reading age of 11 -> better education in prisons would help inmates gain skills

Question 11

sociological theories have influenced policies, how effective are these

Answer 11

evidence shows anti-poverty policies have a positive effect
->societies that spend more on welfare, jail fewer people
->those with greater inequality, like the USA have higher crime rates

Question 12

how has the labelling theory influenced policies (3)

Answer 12

-decriminalisation: minor offences such as posession of cannabis would mean fewer young people were labelled as criminal. a criminal record could prevent them from getting a job and may lead to further crime
-diversion policies: aim to keep an offender out of the justice system to avoid labelling. some diversion policies are informal, others are formal such as programmes to avoid prison
-reintegrative shaming: BRAITHWAITE identifies 2 types of shaming/labelling : disintegrative and reintegrative

Question 13

what is disintegrative shaming (labelling theory)

Answer 13

crime an d criminal is labelled as bad + offender is excluded from society, could cause secondary deviance

Question 14

what is reintegrative shaming

Answer 14

labels the act but not the offender, avoids stigmatising the offender as evil

Question 15

labelligt theories have influenced polices, are these effective

Answer 15

evidence shows some crime control policies based on labelling can deal with minor offences successfully
-by avoiding labelling people as criminal they avoid deviant careers

Question 16

tell me about right realism environmental and crime prevention

Answer 16

-Wilson and Keeling’s broken window theory argues that a disorderly are creates a message that nobody cares ->attracts crime
-environmtal improvement strategy: all signs of disorder must be tackled promptly
-zero tolerance policing strategy: all tough zero tolerance approach -> police to focus on quality of life offences eg: begging, prostitutiona dn vandalism

Question 17

is zero tolerance effective (right realism)

Answer 17

-crime fell after ZTP was introduced in 1990s NYC, but this could be due to other factors
-Males and Mascallair found that ZTP curfews can increase juvenile crime
-ZTP can lead to targeting of ethnic minorities due to police racism
-ZTP and SCP fail to tackle structural causes of crime, they also focus on low level crimes

Question 18

how has left realism influenced policies to reduce inequality

Answer 18

left realists call for changes in structure to tackle discrimination and equality ->reduce relative deprivation

Question 19

how has left realism influenced democratic policing

Answer 19

police are losing public support
to win back this support, police should involve the communities and focus on victimising crimes such as domestic violence

Question 20

what are the 3 left realism policing policies

Answer 20

-neighbourhood policing + police community support officers
-possession of cannabis is a low priority crime
-domestic violence + hate crime are of higher priority

Question 21

how has left realism introduced a multi-agency approach

Answer 21

involvement of a range of agencies such as schools, youth services, housing departments etc. Local councils could improve facilities for young people etc

Question 22

name an example of a multi-agency approach

Answer 22

No knives, Better Lives -> including schools, local council, youth services which aims to reduce knife crime

Question 23

how has left realism introduced new labour policies

Answer 23

“tough on crime” -> investment to communities that care

Question 24

tell me about surveillance theories and their influence on policied

Answer 24

-modern form of Panopticon
-CCTV depends on the criminals believing they are being watched
HOWEVER Gill and Loveday found that very few criminals were put off but CCTV
-Stereotyping: Norris + Armstrong found CCTV operators using racist sterotypes
-“Surveillance creep” is where technology gets introduced for one reason but gets extended to another eg: ANPR being used for untaxed vehicles

Question 25

what is profiling and how has surveillance theories influenced it

Answer 25

-involves using data to draw up statistical images of likely offenders
-uses gathered info such as age, sex and nationality. Individuals will be scored and anyone scoring above a given level will be stopped

Question 26

is criminal profiling effective (surveillance)

Answer 26

-can be discriminatory
-a profile based on crime stats may show a certain group is more likely to offend which can create a self fulfilling prophecy