Institutional Tactics

• Institutional tactics

  Institutions employ diverse methods to minimise deviant behaviour and maintain social control, including token economies in prisons and young offender institutions
• Institutional tactics

  Families, schools, workplaces, religious organisations and armies. Enforce rules for members conduct and gives punishments and rewards
• Sanctions examples: Institution - Rules - Sanctions

  Family - Chores, curfew, respectful behaviour = Time outs, grounding, lots of privileges
• Sanctions: Institution - Rules - Sanctions

  Schools - Attendance, homework, dress code = Detention, suspension, expulsion
• Sanctions examples: Institution - Rules - Sanctions

  Workplace - Punctuality, dress code, performance = verbal/written warning, demotion, termination
• Sanctions examples: Institution - Rules - Sanctions

  Army - Discipline, hierarchy, physical fitness = Extra duty, demotion, dishonourable discharge
• Simple condition (Police caution or formal caution)

  • Can be given to an offender who admits a minor crime EG Graffiti on a bus shelter
  • Designed to bring the case to an end without it having to go to court
  • Must be in public interest to deal with this case in this way
• Simple conditions (Police caution or formal caution)

  • Caution could be used as evidence of bad character of the offender who goes to court charged with another offence
  • A simple caution will not usually be given if the offender has been cautioned for or convicted of the same or similar offences within the previous two years
• Conditional caution (Criminal Justice Act 2003 S.22)

  • Requires an offender to comply with conditions, as an alternative to prosecution
  • Conditions that can be attached must be rehabilitative, reparative and/or a financial penalty
  • Can be given where there is enough evidence to charge the person with an offence but it is not in the public interest to prosecute
• Conditional caution (Criminal Justice Act 2003, S.22)

  • Conditions could be things like putting right damage that has been done properly or going for treatment for drug abuse
  • If the offender does not comply with the conditions, then he or she can be charged with the crime
• Sanctions in Criminal Justice Institutions

  Courts

  • The courts can sentence, offenders to various punishments for their offences
  • AC 2.2, be used to achieve both individual and general deterrence
  • Punishment may put the convicted offender off repeating their crime and also serve as a lesson to the public in general
• Sanctions in Criminal Justice Institutions

  Courts
• Rule breaking and sanctions

  • Include a caution, loss of earned privileges, cellular confinement (Solidarity confinement), being prevented from working or from receiving money earned from working
  • Punishments are time limited EG Cellular confinement can only last up to 35 days
  • More serious offences can lead up 42 extra days added to your sentence
• Prison - 'Phased Discipline'

  • Phased or staged discipline is a common way of attempting to achieve social control
  • First offence, whether in prison or in wider society, is often dealt with more leniently - EG A loss of privileges for a few says (for prisoners), a warning, a police caution for a conditional discharge
• Prison - 'Phased Discipline'

  • Repeat offending, particular if it is more serious, is likely to be met with stronger sanctions such as probation or prison in an attempt to deter future misbehaviour
• Cautions

  • One form of staged sanctions, that can be given by the police caution
  • CPS can also issue a caution for an indictable offence
• Caution

  • A simple condition can be given to an offender who admits a minor crime
• Gaps in provision

  Achieve some degree of control over criminal and anti social behaviour but this can never be complete

  • Reasons
  • Budget cuts
  • New Technologies/complex crimes
  • Unreported crime
  • Existing law limitations
  • Social media
• Budget cuts

  Police - Budget cut by 19%. This led to a fall of 20,000 in police numbers
• Budget cuts

  CPS - Budget cuts by a quarter and the organisation lost 1/3 of its staff
• Budget cuts

  Prisons - Budget fell by 16% and staff levels by 15%
• Budget cuts

  • Since the financial crisis of 2008, the government spending cuts and re - organisations have also had an impact of state agencies
  • Reducing their effectiveness in maintaining social control
• Resources:

  • Funding of state social control agencies comes mainly from the taxes paid by the public
  • Limits on how much taxpayers are willing to pay for these agencies and governments face competing demands of resources from other sectors
• New Technology

  2018, heard of CPS, Alison Saunders said Criminal Justice system was creaking and unable to cope with huge amounts of data being guaranteed by technology

  • 600 police hours to go through digital material
  • 15 officers working all weekend
• New Technology

  Direct of Public Prosecutions, Max Hill said problems checking mobile phones for evidence have led to failures to disclose evidence
• Unreported crimes
• Unreported crimes

  Agencies can only investigate, prosecute and convict offenders if the offence has been reported. Until, only about 40% of crimes are reported to the police and different kinds of crime have different reporting rates
• Unreported crimes

  • only about one in four rapes and attempted rapes are reported
  • Estimated 2.3 million domestic abuse cases occurred in 2019/20, but not all were reported to police and only 759,000 crimes were reported
• Unreported crimes

  Crimes may make up the data collected through the crime survey for England and Wales (CSEW)
• Existing law issues

  • Social control by criminal justice agencies can be only achieved so long as there are appropriate laws in place to begin with
  • Sometimes, a new type of harm emerges but there is no existing law to forbid it
• Existing law issues

  • State agencies are unable to bring prosecutions to control the harmful behaviour where no law allows it
• Social media and the law

  • Debate surrounds social media platforms' responsibility for offensive and harmful content, such as the 2019 Christchurch mosque attacks livestream
• Social media and the law

  • Traditional publishers face criminal liability for promoting hatred and terrorism, while social media companies, claiming they aren't publishers, avoid prosecution in the UK
• Social media and the law - Examples

  Germany - Enacted a 2017 law requiring swift removal of hate speech, fake news, and illegal materials: fines up to 50m euros
• Social media and the law - Examples

  Australia - Passed a 2019 law after Christ Church massacre, companies to notify police or remove videos of violent acts

  Executes of companies who fall to comply may be liable for up to three years in jail