AC 3.4 EFFECTIVENESS OF AGENCIES ACHIEVING SOCIAL CONTROL

• police strength:

  Specialist policing – specialist teams e.g, HMRC for tax evasion, means the police can focus their resources on areas that are within their remit and would improve their ability to control the public 
• police strength:

  Offences of public concern – police have made progress in prioritising some of the offences of concern to the public e.g., domestic abuse, 2017 annual report shows 2/3rds of domestic abuse practitioners felt the polices approach had improved 
• police strength:

  Improved recording procedure – apparent rise in number of crimes could simply be because the police are better at recording them, 2014 report stated recorded statistics had not met the required standards so police have made efforts to improve their recording  
• police weakness:

  Offences of public concern – arrest rate has been falling, staff shortages are leading to delays, body cameras are not always worn, suggests police are not effectively embracing their role and letting some criminals slip through the net 
• police weakness:

  Recent police involvement in criminal activities – have recently been highlighted for their general incompetence and corrupt nature, 80% of officers accused of domestic violence have kept their jobs, Sarah Everard case, Couzens was sentenced to a whole life term for the rape and murder of Everard 
• police weakness:

  Inefficiency – criticisms of the polices efficiency, incompetence in investigating offences, Macpherson Report noted the failure of the Met police in gathering evidence for the Stephen Lawrence case 
• police weakness:

  Current trends; more crimes but fewer solved – police statistics show crime is increasing, recorded knife crime and gun crimes have increased, however, 2020 just 7% of cases resulted in someone being charged, number of penalty notices and cautions has also fallen 
• police weakness:

  Dropped cases – police are failing to investigate a large number of crimes, 2018 Met police dropped 2.9 times as many cases on the day they were reported, over 6 year period total of 525,000 had been screened out 
• police weakness:

  Financial circumstances – 2010 government made major cuts in police funding, cause of the police decisions to drop investigations, limited budgets mean fewer officers and that some investigations are prioritise over others 
• police weakness:

  Racism and bias – Macpherson Report in 1999 found the Met to be institutionally racist, stop and searches are used disproportionately against people of minority backgrounds, tasers are also still used disproportionately 
• police weakness:

  Media reports – accusations of the police playing to the media, police have been criticised for overreacting to media driven moral panics 
• CPS strength:

  Evidence of success – in 3 months average the CPS prosecute around 80,000 cases in crown court and 450,000 in magistrates, around 80% of the defendants are convicted 
• CPS weakness:

  Lack of effectiveness – to some extent they fail to achieve social control by effectively prosecuting offenders  
• CPS weakness:

  Media reports – criticism of its handling of rape cases, Guardian reported in 2014 rape prosecutors had been advised to drop a number of weak cases 
• CPS weakness:

  Realistic prospect of conviction – critics argue CPS should be less focused on trial outcomes and more on bringing cases to justice, number of rapes reported rose by a third, but prosecution fell by 60% 
• CPS weakness:

  Budget cuts – budget cut of 25% and has lost 1/3 of its staff, CPS cannot sustain further cuts due to new technology, in one case it took 600 hours to go through one phone 
• CPS weakness:

  Failure to build the case – CPS has failed to build an adequate case for some high-profile cases, leading to prosecution collapsing e.g., murder of Damilola Taylor, CPS rested its case on an obvious lying witness 
• CPS weakness:

  Other criticisms of the CPS – criticised for being too close to the police, too slow and inefficient as well as failure to communicate with relevant parties, example where suspects have found out their case is being dropped by reading it in the media
• judiciary strength:

  Leniency – very few applications are made for sentence reviews, in 2018 only 140 cases were referred, 99 had their sentence extended, suggests judges are not lenient when compared with the thousands of cases they hear each year 
• judiciary weakness:

  Bias – judges tend to come from a narrow unrepresentative background, 68% are male and 74% of judges were privately educated, the same percentage going to either oxford or Cambridge e.g., one judge gave an oxford student who stabbed her boyfriend a suspended sentence as he said prison would be too severe, suggested this wouldn’t have happened if she was from a lower class 
• judiciary weakness:

  Out of touch – age, education and class background make judges seem somewhat atypical members of society meaning they may be out of touch when sentencing, however, research suggests it doesn’t affect their sentencing ability  
• prisons weakness:

  Staff cuts – between 2010 and 2018, prison officers fell by 15% with more experienced officers being more likely to leave  
• prison weakness:

  Overcrowding – prison population has almost doubled since 1993, 2018, 58% of prisons were overcrowded leading to discontent and rule breaking 
• prison weakness:

  Not addressing rehabilitation – increased number of prisoners, staff shortages and budget cuts mean prisons aren’t able to deal with the cause of prisoners offending behaviour, not enough time to address complex needs 
• prison weakness:

  Security – although there have been almost no prison escapes there are numerous breaches of security regarding contraband including drugs, sim cards and other forbidden items  
• prison weakness:

  Safety – incidents of self-harm, assaults and suicides have risen in 2020 there were, 9800 assaults, five homicides, 76 suicides and 65,000 incidents of self-harm particularly amongst women 
• prison weakness:

  After release – many ex-prisoners re-offend, 36% of all ex-prisoners reoffend and 64% of those on short sentences re-offend, suggesting prisons aren’t effective
• probation strength:

  National probation service – the NPS has been more successful than NRC’s in achieving social control, has half the re-offending rate compared to prisons  
• probation weakness:

  Privatisation – 2014 conservative government privatised some of the probation service to try reducing reoffending, called community rehabilitation companies, they delt with low-risk offenders and earned money for meeting specific targets, the CRC’s performance failed expectations 19 failing to meet their targets so were terminated by 2020
• charities strength:

  Strong commitment – charities can be better placed to reduce offending and re-offending than government agencies, they have a strong commitment to a particular issue and specialist knowledge of peoples needs, also very motivated so may go the extra mile 
• NACRO: 

  • Provides services for ex-prisoners and those in danger of offending  
  • Provides accommodation for those released from prison  
  • Acts as a pressure group e.g., end Friday releases campaign  
• Women in Prison: 

  • Pressure groups aiming to reduce the number of women in prison  
  • Calls for money to be invested into specialist women centres and solutions for housing and mental health 
  • Call for courts to follow sentencing guidelines and only use prison as a last resort, 84% of women are in prison for non-violent crimes 
  • Support women with a free telephone hotline, referrals to specialist agencies and delivering CARE programmes 
• Prison Reform Trust: 

  • Aims to reduce imprisonment and provide better quality conditions for prisoners and their families 
  • Want to create a just, humane and effective penal system  
• charities weakness:

  Gaps in provision – voluntary organisations so there is only charities where people are concerned about a particular cause when there may be other relevant ones, e.g., many are more concerned about the victims so there are less charities aimed at actually rehabilitating offenders 
• charities weakness:

  Funding – easier to persuade the public to donate funds for some causes than others which may be just as deserving, national and local governments also only tend to donate to charities fitting within their political and financial priorities