crime and the law

• The people most likely to commit crime are young, male, and live in city or urban areas.
• Young people are also more likely to be a victim of crime, with 26% of young people being a victim, compared to 9% for those aged 60 and over.
• The people most likely to commit crime are young, male, and live in city or urban areas.
• The main causes of crime are nature, nurture, family relationships, and peer pressure.
• Nature is when people turn to crime because they are "born bad".
• Nurture is when factors in people's lives such as poverty, family situations, substance use, and peer pressure make them commit the crime.
• Family relationships are affected when children are brought up in families where parents let them stay out late and unsupervised, or don't take any notice of them, as the parents have problems of their own, possibly with alcohol or drugs.
• Peer pressure is when teenagers are pressurised into doing something wrong to appear "cool" in front of their friends, which can lead to minor crimes such as underage drinking or more serious ones like robbery.
• Being under the influence of alcohol is a major cause of crime, particularly in city centres at the weekend, but can also include serious crimes like rape and murder, with 41% of prisoners admitting that they were under the influence of alcohol at the time they committed the crime.
• Violent movies and TV often don't show that violence is wrong, or should be punished, leading people to believe that they can commit the same types of crimes and not be punished.
• Children who watch violent programmes can become desensitized to the violence, making them more likely to commit violent crime.
• Children can also become fearful of the world around them, a condition known as "Mean World Syndrome".
• Knife crime is decreasing in Scotland, particularly in Glasgow which was the knife crime capital of Europe, due to Police initiatives such as "No Knives Better Lives", Stop and Search, and amnesties where knives were handed into police and the people using them were not prosecuted.
• Places such as London have seen a significant increase in knife crime over the past few years.
• In England, 43 out of 44 police forces have reported an increase in recent years.
• Non-custodial sentences are given to convicted criminals instead of prison sentences, with punishments such as fines, electronic tagging, community payback schemes, and anti social behaviour orders.
• Scottish prisons have 4 main aims: to secure offenders in custody, to take care of offenders, to reduce re-offending, and to prepare offenders for release.
• Securing offenders in custody is done successfully by trained staff and modern security systems.
• Taking care of offenders means that prisoners are properly fed, clothed and kept clean, and are given medical attention if they are ill.
• Offenders can undertake education and employment to equip them for release.
• Reducing re-offending is a challenge, with 60% of prisoners re-offending and returning to prison within a year.
• Many prisoners are serving sentences of 6 months or less, contributing to overcrowding in prisons.
• It costs £30,000 a year to keep a prisoner in jail.
• There are lower cost alternative punishments.
• Fines are paid to the court for offenses such as speeding for the first time.
• Electronic Tagging is a method where a person's movements are restricted by wearing one of these.
• Community Payback Schemes are when the offender puts something back into the community such as removing graffiti, clearing litter, and repairing and redecorating community centres.
• Anti Social Behaviour Orders (ASBO) restrict the behaviour of the offender in some way, by prohibiting them from visiting a certain area or shop, or by restricting public behaviour such as swearing or drinking alcohol.
• There are 3 types of courts in Scotland- the High Court, Sheriff Court and the District Court.
• The High Court deals with serious crimes such as murder, rape, and robbery.
• Trial in the High Court is by Jury and the maximum sentence is life imprisonment or unlimited fines.
• The Sheriff Court deals with serious and minor offences such as theft and serious driving offences.
• Trial in the Sheriff Court can be by Jury or the Sheriff alone, and the maximum sentence is 2 years or unlimited fines.
• The District Court deals with minor offences such as the failure to pay fines, minor assaults and thefts.
• A Justice of the Peace is in charge of the District Court, and the maximum sentence is 60 days in prison and fines.
• Restorative justice focuses on the needs of the victim, rather than the offender, instead of only punishing the offender.
• In restorative justice, the victim will put their side of the story to the offender and make the offender think about what their actions have had on the victim.
• Restorative justice has been used over the years in countries such as New Zealand and Canada, and has been successful, as reoffending rates there have fallen.
• Some people think that alternatives to prison are too “soft” on the criminal, as they give them little in the way of “real punishment”.
• Alternatives to prison keep the offender at home and many victims want to see a prison sentence as the offender has committed a crime and there should be a consequence of that.