unit two - ac4.3

Question 1

newspaper campaigns to affect policy marking - Sarah’s law

Answer 1

• result of successful campaign to allow parents, carers and others to ask police if a convicted sex offender has come in contact with a child
• came following abduction and murder in july 2000 of 8-year-old Sarah Payne
• news of the world, july 2000 ‘named and shamed’ fifty people it claimed were paedophiles, promised to continue until it had revealed the identity of every paedophile in britain
• campaign successfully succeeded in persuading government to introduce the child sex offender disclosure scheme in 2011

Question 2

newspaper campaigns to affect policy making - the year and a day rule

Answer 2

• micheal gibson 20 when assaulted by david clark in april 1992, died after being in a coma for 22 months
• clark could only be charged with grevious bodily harm and jailed for two years, free before micheal died
• ‘year and a day’ rule existed, if victims of assault lived for a year and a day, attackers couldnt be tried for manslaughter or murder
• northern echo, launched ‘justice for micheal’ campaign urging readers to sign a petition demanding the rule be scrapped, published a front-page photo of micheal in a coma in his hospital bed, thousands signed petition
• 1994 local MP, alan milburn introduced a bill into the house of commons to scrap the rule, but was narrowly defeated
• following northern echo’s petition, 1996 law reform act

Question 3

individual campaigns to affect policy making - clares law

Answer 3

• 2009, 36 year old Clare Wood beaten, raped and strangles and body set on fire by George Appleton
• Clare’s father discovered that she had made several complaints to greater manchester police but they had taken no action
• inquest had to wait 26 months while clare’s death and police failures were fully investigated, coroner wrote to the home office asking why clare hadnt been informed of appleton’s past
• micheal launched a campign to change the law to enable women to know about their partner’s violent past
• 2014 domestic violence discloure scheme rolled out across all 43 police forces in England and Wales
• the right to ask: allows a member of the public to apply to the police to disclose info, can ask about their own partner or someone they know
• the right to know, allows the police to disclose information to protect a potential victim, even without having being asked to do so
• police arent obliged to disclose info and they will meet with other safeguarding agencies to decide whether disclosure is necessary
• operation of the scheme, 2018 6,946 ‘right to ask’ requests made and 2575 were granted - average of 40%
• big differences between police forces, cumbria police disclosed info in 96% cases, bedfordshire police only 7%

Question 4

individual campaigns to affect policy making - changing the double jeopardy law

Answer 4

• Ann Ming campaign, Ann Ming campaigned for a change in the law, lobbying politicians and using the press, tv and radio to publicise the case
• 2003 criminal justice act, result of Ann Ming’s successful campaign, permitted certain serious crimes to be re-tried, include: murder, manslaughter, rape, kidnapping, major drug offences and armed robbery
• retrial can only take place if ‘new and compelling evidence’ emerges and if the director of public prosecutions gives the go ahead, only one retrial is permitted

Question 5

pressure group campaigns to affect policy making

Answer 5

• organisations that try to influence government policies in the interests of a particular cause, play an important part in policy making by gaining public support for change and by persuading politicians that change is needed

Question 6

pressure group campaigns to affect policy making - protection against stalking

Answer 6

• 2011 protection against stalking launched a campaign to introduce a new law making stalking a specific offence, existing 1997 anti-harassment law didnt refer specifically to stalking
• attitude of the justice system, lacked a clear policy and investigations were often left to individual officers’ discretion, victims werent taken seriously, only 70 prosecutions in ten years under the 1997 act
• PAS set up an independent parliamentary inquiry, persuading MPs and peers from all parties to serve on it
• inquiry lasted several months, hearing evidence from victims and their relatives, heard about the intimidation, fear, psychological and physical harm stalkers inflict and the inadequate response of the authorities
• inquiry’s report published in february 2012, support of 60 MPs and peers, police federation and the magistrates’ association, able to get MPs to include an amendment to a bill that was going through parliament, became Protection of Freedoms act April 2012
• inquiry allowed voices of victims to be heard, gained support from a wide range of important organisations and groups, kept the campaign in the public eye through press releases to the media

Question 7

pressure group campaigns to affect policy making - INQUEST

Answer 7

• focuses on state-related deaths, those of people who work in police custody, prisons, immigration detention centres and psychiatric care
• campaigns to ensure that investigations into death treat bereaved people with dignity and respect involved in a range of activites:
• casework, carries out specialist casework to support bereaved people so they can establish the truth about a death that has occured while someone was in the care of the state
• accountability, aims to ensure that state institutions are held accountable when they fail to safeguard those in their care
• changing policies: aims to spread the lessons learnt from investigations in order to prevent further deaths, gathers evidence from its casework, conducts research and uses its info to press public bodies to change their policies
• successful INQUEST campaigns: setting up the Independent Police Complains Commission, investigates serious complaints and allegations of misconduct against police, extending 2007 Corporate Manslaughter Act to cover deaths in the custody of public authorities