AC 3.3 LIMITAIONS OF AGENCIES ACHIEVING SOCIAL CONTROL

• REPEAT OFFENDING

  Recidivism Rates: 

  • Social control measures are not always effective  
  • On average those who re-offend commit a further 4 offences each  
  • Recidivism rate has been gradually rising since 2009 
  • Re-offending rate for those released from prison is 36% for all prisoners  
  • Re-offending rate for those who received short sentences is 64% 
  • Around 37% of juvenile offenders re-offend withing the year 
  • Suggests prisons are nor effectively enacting social control as people are continuing to re-offend 
• REPEAT OFFENDING

  The Rising Prison Population: 

  • Population today is almost double that in 1993 
  • Repeat offending is one reason for this e.g., do to those being recalled serving the rest of their sentence 
  • Courts are now also giving longer sentences e.g., average minimum sentence for murder increased from 12.5 years to 21.3 years  
• REPEAT OFFENDING

  Who Re-offends: 

  • People with more previous convictions are more likely to re-offend again  
  • Those who served a prison sentence are more likely to re-offend than those with community sentence or warning 
  • Males are more likely  
  • Offenders with drug/alcohol addictions 
  • Those who are homeless with few qualifications and unemployed 
• REPEAT OFFENDING

  Theories: 

  Right Realism – argue prisons work as offenders are rational actors, the fear of being jailed acts as a deterrent, the high re-offending rate shows this is not accurate  

  Marxism – find it unsurprising how unemployed offenders are more likely to re-offend as they cannot survive solely off benefits  
• CIVIL LIBERTIES AND LEGAL BARRIERS: 

  • Some authoritarian states social control agencies have few restrictions on their powers 
  • Critics argue they are not free to express themselves and their opinions due to risk of being locked up indefinitely  
  • these are important protections for the individual against the states abuse of power
  • Civil liberties are basic rights and freedoms guaranteed to every individual by the law: 
• civil liberties

  Freedom of speech – the right to say what you like, including freedom of the press and the media  

  Freedom of assembly and freedom to associate with others – the right to get together and protest peacefully 

  Freedom of movement – the right to go where you want, within the law 

  Freedom from arbitrary arrest – everyone has the right to liberty and security of the person and will not be arrested unlawfully 
• civil liberties

  Freedom from detention without trial – no person will be kept under detention pending investigation or trial except upon the written order of such an authority 

  Freedom of religion and conscience – everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion 

  The right to privacy – media and others can be prevented from interfering in a person's life. Personal information needs to be kept securely and not be shared without permission, except in certain circumstances 
• why prisons fail to rehabilitate:

  Resources: 

  short sentences – don’t give enough time to do the intensive work needed to address deep rooted problems e.g., drug dependency 

  
  

  Inadequate resources for education and training – 2020 report chief inspector said half the prisons inspected had too few useful programmes and fewer than 2/5ths were delivering good activities  
• why prisons fail to rehabilitate:

  resources:

  15% cut in the number of prison officers – fewer prison officers to supervise prisoners undertaking activities that would help their rehabilitation, prisoners are denied access to recreational and educational facilities due to staff shortages 

  
  

  Release on temporary license – very few are able to take part in this scheme due to shortages of staff to supervise it  
• Circumstances in the community: 

  • Newly released prisoners may face difficult circumstances including; 

  Lack of money – prisoners earn very little from working in prison and receive only a £46 discharge grant on their release  

  Lack of a job – only ¼ of prisoners have a job to go to on their release  

  Homelessness – most prisoners lose their tenancy and entitlement to housing benefits if they are expected to spend more than 13 weeks in prison  
• ‘End Friday Releases’ campaign – being discharged on a Friday can mean a race against the clock as access to services such as accommodation shut down for the weekend, this leaves offenders vulnerable to re-offending 
• Community Sentences Failing to Rehabilitate: 

  Inadequate support for complex needs – e.g., drug addiction, mental health problems and homelessness. often too few places on specialist programmes to address such needs  

  Inadequate supervision by probation services – there have been criticisms that the service is too lax in allowing offenders to miss supervision appointments  

  Failures by the privatised community rehabilitation companies – which have been criticised for failing to meet their targets and for poor supervision of offenders. As a result, the CRC’s contracts were ended in 2020
• FINANCE: 

  Police: 

  • Between 2010 and 2018 overall budget was cut by 19% 
  • Cuts led to fall of 20,000 in police numbers  
  • Evidence that police are dropping investigations into crimes e.g., sexual offences, violent attacks  
  • Police forces may be more tempted to drop serious cases since they take longer to investigate e.g., rape cases take on average 129 days compared to 2 days for theft  
• FINANCE:

  CPS: 

  • Between 2010 and 2018 budget was cut by ¼, organisation lost 1/3 of its staff 
  • 2018 head of CPS said they were failing to investigate thousands of cases efficiently 
  • Accused of downgrading charges so they can prosecute cases in magistrates court as its quicker and cheaper, means offenders may get off with lighter sentences  
• FINANCE:

  Prisons: 

  • Between 2010 and 2018 budget fell by 16% and staff levels by 15%, many more experiences officers left the force  
  • Overcrowding and staff cuts mean lack of opportunities for rehabilitation  
• FINANCE:

  Probation: 

  • 2019 annual report cheif inspector highlighted range of problems e.g., staff shortages, lack of confidence, failures by private CRC’s 
• National Government Policies: 

  • Central government introduces laws and policies affecting the work of agencies e.g., police, CPS  
  • 2019 Home secretary announced he was making it easier for police officers to stop and search for an offensive weapon  
  • Power is available to the police through the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994
• The Serious Violence Strategy: 

  • Increased police powers are part of a broader national serious violence strategy 
  • Aims to involve other agencies e.g., youth services, NHS 
  • e.g., children excluded from schools may be more at risk for committing offences 
• Local Policies: 

  • Some local forces prioritise different crimes e.g., knife crime  
  • They may enforce extra measured for these specialised crimes  
• Weapon Amnesties: 

  • Good example of local priority  
  • Local police forces hold amnesties where they won't arrest people for surrendering illegal weapons  
  • 2-week amnesty in London 2017 which led to 350 firearms being handed in  
  • Amnesties are intended to reduce criminal use of weapons in an area  
  • May be held if new laws are being introduced making it an offence to possess a weapon not previously banned  
• Moral Panics: 

  • Priorities may be affected by media coverage and moral panics about a particular type of crime  
  • Moral panic in the press about dangerous dogs led to the hasty introduction of the new law which proved to be largely ineffective 
• CRIMES COMMITTED WITH MORAL IMPERATIVES: 

  • Moral imperative is an overriding sense of what is right, compels a person to do what they believe is right even if it means breaking the law 
  • Clive Ponting – broke the law by passing secret information, argued he had done so in public interest  
  • Kay Gilderdale – broke the law by assisting in the suicide of her daughter who had been seriously ill for 17 years  
  • These cases tend to be either aquitted or given a lesser sentence as it's hard to convict someone when they believe they are acting morally right  
• The Suffragettes: moral imperatives

  • As a part of their campaign of direct action and civil disobedience they deliberately broke the law  
  • e.g., set fire to post boxes, smashed windows 
  • When convicted they refused to pay fines  
  • Many went on a hunger strike when imprisoned 
  • Government enforced the cat and mouse act as it allowed hunger strikers to be temporarily released from prison   
• The Stansted 15: 

  • 15 protestors who chained themselves to a plane to deport people  
  • The 15 were convicted of ‘endangering an aerodrome’ which carries potential life sentences, all 15 had their convictions quashed by court of appeal in 2021 
  • They acted to prevent the deportation of human trafficking victims 
• Theory: 

  Functionalists – argue without deviance new social values could not emerge, no change would be possible e.g., without the suffragette's law-breaking women wouldn’t have got the vote