Crime and Punishment II Flashcards
(34 cards)
1
Q
What were the reasons for the separate system?
A
REHABILITATION - solitude was thought to be the best way to provide prisoners with an opportunity to reflect, turn to religion, and reform. They also couldn’t be influenced by other criminals
RETRIBUTION - isolation and boredom made the criminal ‘pay’ for their crime
DETERRENT - was a serious punishment
2
Q
Strengths of the separate system?
A
- Cleaner, less disease
- Not overly harsh, the right level of punishment
3
Q
Weakness of the separate system?
A
- Mental illness
- High suicide rate
- No education or instruction to provide new skills for prisoners to use when they’re released
4
Q
Who was Robert Peel?
A
- Reduced the number of death penalty offences and tried to reform the punishment system and in 1829, he persuaded the gov to pass the Metropolitan Police Act, which set up the first professional police force in London.
In 1825 Peel reduced the number of capital crimes by 100 because he wanted less harsh punishments for petty crimes, to try and reform rather than kill them.
5
Q
What was the Prison reform?
A
- 1823 Gaols Act - stated chaplains and gaolers should be paid. However no inspectors to enforce so impact was limited
6
Q
Features of the Metropolitan Police officers?
A
- Central aims was to prevent crimes and disorder to be total impartial and objective
- Carefully selected and well trained, full time and fairly well paid job
- Had a uniform so they could be identified
- Usually unarmed, minimum physical force
- Patrolling areas where crimes were high
- Not popular, but soon seen as honest and trustworthy
7
Q
What were the features of the changing society?
A
- Multicultural, containing difference in race and religion
- More equal, as the position of the woman changed
8
Q
Race Crime, Drug crimes and driving offences….?
A
- Criminal Justice Act in 2005 gave more severe sentences for other crimes for hate crimes. - Race crimes
- Drugs Act in 1971 - taking or supplying some substances illegal in the UK
- Crimes were driving under the influence of drugs, driving without insurance, speeding, ignoring traffic lights, driving with a phone
9
Q
Modern changes in policing…?
A
- Motorised transport means that the police can reach crime faster
- Some police are armed to look like soldiers, which not everybody supports
10
Q
Example of special police units:
A
- National Crime Agency - seeks to detect crime
- Economic Crime Unit - investigates large scale fraud
- Police Central e-crime Unit - cybercrimes
- Special Branch - deals with terrorism
11
Q
Neighbourhood Watch
A
- Volunteers to help prevent and detect crimes, increased vigilance, and reduce fear of crime
12
Q
Use of science and technology
A
Use of radios, DNA, CCTV, computers, cars, finger printing
13
Q
New modern punishments?
A
- Community sentences
- Antisocial behaviour
- Electronic tagging
14
Q
Who were the Conscious objectors and what were the attitudes towards them?
A
- People with religious, moral or political objections to war
- Cowardly, not making sacrifices for their country in the war, yelled at in the streets, physically abused, families shunned, dismissed by jobs, press was less harsh in WW2, men not in uniform given a white feather to show cowardice in WW1
15
Q
Different treatments by the authorities in WW1
A
- Conscription for men in 1916
- Excused Conscientious objectors
- 16,000 men refused to fight
- Only 400 men were given exemption
- Military trubinals made of military officers checked to see if CO was genuine
- ‘Alternativists’ were given non-combat roles
- ‘Absoloutists’ were imprisoned, given brutal treatment and hard labour
16
Q
Different treatment by the authorities in WW2
A
- Conscription for men in April 1939 and women in 1941
- Excused Conscientious objectors
- 59,000 men refused to fight
- Tribunals (not military) - checked if CO was genuine
- 12,204 exempted completed or partially
- Partially was non combat
- Smaller percentage sent to prison if given no exemption
17
Q
What was the Derek Bentley case and what was it’s significance?
A
- Disability guy, robbed a warehouse with his friend who was under 18, but was killed, not under 18 guy, despite under 18 shooting police and convicting them both of murder. Huge public outcry
- It highlighted the vast differences in punishment for murder, illustrates how the system of the Home Secretary reprieving murders from a hanging was a lottery
- Increased the number of people who were critical of the death penalty.
18
Q
Police recruits of the Met features:
A
- Most came from London and liked the pay
- Some were soldiers, but most came from farming
- Problems with drinking and the practice of regularly staying away from work or school without good reason
19
Q
What was the beat constable?
A
- Prevent crime
- Patrolled a route of streets to deter criminals, asking people what they were doing and breaking up fights and arresting suspects
20
Q
Commissioner Sir Charles Warren…?
A
- Appointed in 1886
- Banned a planned unemployment protest, and when people ignored it, deployed 1000s of men from the army. Violent clashes followed
- He ordered an increase in patrol when Jack the Ripper happened but lost his job cause he couldn’t find him
21
Q
Attitude towards the police?
A
- Held a vendetta - felt they were against the working class because of the Trafalgar Square protest, and only worked for the middle and upper classes. Economic depression and ensuing poverty of the period contributed to this hatred of the police
22
Q
Whitechapel housing features:
A
- Lodging houses - lodgers paid a nightly fee for a bed, access to a kitchen, 1/4 of the Whitechapel population lived in these
- Attempts to improve housing - George Peabody paid for the 11 blocks of flats - Peabody Estate opened in 1881
23
Q
Provision for the poor:
A
- Workhouses seen as a last resort - hard labour for food and a bed. Conditions were poor, families split and inmates had to wear uniform. Most were elderly, ill, disabled, orphans or unmarried mothers
24
Q
Lack of unemployment opportunities:
A
- High unemployment, econ depression, women were prostitutes. Those who had jobs:
- Worked long hours in sweatshops, low pay factories, conditions were cramped, dirty
- Built railways, dockyards. Pay was better but numbers required varied so weekly income varied.
25
What were the links to the environment and crime?
- Inner city of poverty, discontent and crime was due to:
- Low income levels led to stealing for survival for those desperate to leave the workhouses
- Unreliable work meant many had spare time for violence, alcoholism
- Overcrowding led to tension between tensions which often led to violence
- High levels of prostitution that led to violence in women
26
Four features of the tension in Whitechapel?
- Irish immigrants - reputation for being drunkies and terrorism,
- The Fenians fighting for irish independance - railroad workers
- Fluctuating population - accomodation was temporary, people didn't bother to foster a community
- Eastern European immigrants
- Anarchists and socialists - 1848 - wave of attempted revolutions and both movements were feared by the authorities, upper classes, middle classes, but support from residents
27
What were the resulting tensions?
- Tension between immigrant and local pop over access to housing
- Recently arrived Jewish immigrants were prepared to accept poor standard of living
- Anti-Semitism grew and foreigners were blamed for crimes
28
What was the work of the H division?
- Literally the same as a beat constables but recorded everything in a diary so quirky
29
What were the problems in policing White chapel using the H Division
- The environment - dark, narrow, multiple doors and alleys - hard chasing criminals
- Gangs - professionals who employed others to do petty theft
- Violent demonstrations - large numbers of angry people led to large numbers of police needed, and alcohol helped escalate violence and prostitution
- Attacks on Jews - some police were anti-sem, and some couldn't get passed the language barrier
- Protection rackets - gangs demanded protection money to protect businesses, refusal meant property damage. Due to fear, they weren't reported
30
4 features of the White chapel Vigilance Commitee in 1888
- Set up by businessmen on the 10th Sep due to the lack of police progress in Jack the Ripper
- Offered rewards for info on the murderer
- Patrolled the street with torches and whistles
- Disrupted police investigation but also hampered police by sending false leads and encouraged criticism in newspapers
31
Improvements after 1888 in policing?
- Taking measurements and pictures of suspects and keeping record - the Bertillon system
- Intro of telephones - improved speed of communication
32
Rival police forces and other problems?
- Great rivalry between the Met and City of London police forces, each force wanted to solve crimes before the other, Whitechapel overlapped the 2, so problem with the Jack the Ripper investigation
33
What about the Jack the Ripper media?
- Eventhough it encouraged the public to come forward, it attracted hoax letters. Also stirred up racial hatred.
34
What did Jack the Ripper do?
- 31st Aug - 9 Nov 1888, 5 women were strangled and mutilated in Whitechapel, to this day the murderer was never discovered.
