3.1

• Police deal with all types of offence and offender. There are some specialist law enforcement agencies that deal with certain crimes and criminal
• Specialist Policing


  • Detectives in CID
  • Fraud and drug squads
  • Special Branch
  • Covert operations/surveillance
  • Traffic and mounted police
  • Unarmed policing
• Special Constables


  Unpaid, part time volunteers who undergo the same training and have the same legal powers as paid officers
• PCSOs


  Limited in their power. Deal with anti-social behaviour e.g. issuing FPNs for littering or confiscating alcohol from underage drinkers. They can ask a police officer to arrest a person
• Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs)


  Elected representatives of the people of the area covered by a police force (e.g. Bedfordshire; West Yorkshire). They give the local population a voice in policing and aim to cut rime and ensure efficient and effective policing. They set local police priorities and budget
• Police forces in the UK

  • 39 regional police forces in England
  • 4 in Wales
  • 1 police force in Scotland
  • 1 police force in Northern Ireland
• There are also specialist police organisations with a UK wide reach, such as the National Crime Agency, the British Transport Police, Border Force.
• Sources of police funding

  • 2/3 comes from central government
  • Most of the rest comes from council tax
  • A small amount comes from charging for services i.e. police attending a football match
• Police funding fell by 19% between 2010 and 2018
• This led to a fall of 20,000 in police numbers during the same period
• By 2020. There were 123,000 police officers in England and Wales
• Aside from very minor offences, the CPS deals with the full range of offences and criminals.
• CPS structure


  • CPS is a national body throughout England and Wales, with 14 regional area teams responsible for prosecuting locally
  • Each one is headed by a Chief Crown Prosecutor who works closely with the local police teams and other criminal justice partners
  • CPS direct is a virtual 15th area, providing charging decisions to police nationwide, 24/7, 365 days a year
• Most of the funding for the CPS comes from the government, with a budget of half a million pounds per year. The CPS recovers necessary costs through the courts awarding costs against defendants and recovering assets confiscated from criminals.
• CPS suffered significant funding cuts. In 2018, budget had fallen by 25% and it had lost 1/3 of its staff prompting concern about the ability of the CPS to perform its role effectively.
• Judges deal with all types of offence and offender, except for the least serious cases, which are usually dealt with by magistrates, or by cautions or fixed penalty notices issued by the police
• The position of judges reflects the importance of maintaining their independence so that they can uphold the rule of law and defend the rights of citizens.


  • They have security of tenure: they cannot be removed from office except by a petition to the Queen passed by both Houses of Parliament
  • Their salary is guaranteed
• Judiciary hierarchy


  • Superior judges, who sit in the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and High Court
  • Inferior judges, who sit in Crown Court (and sometimes in magistrates courts)
• At the most senior level, the Supreme Court has nationwide jurisdiction and settles points of law of national importance. Judges working in the lower, inferior, courts such as the 90 or so Crown Court venues around the country handle local cases
• Pay of judges is decided by an independent body
• In 2020, the most senior judge, the Lord Chief Justice received £262,000, District judges in the lowest rank in the judiciary, earned £112,000
• Although judges are well paid, some senior lawyers can earn far more than judges. Some senior barristers, working in commercial law, earn in excess of £1m. This can be a disincentive for people to become judges
• Prison service deals with higher risk offenders who are not suitable to serve their prison sentence in the community. However, the range of seriousness of offence varies greatly, from murder to theft
• Although prison service aims to rehabilitate prisoners, prisons have been criticised for the lack of training, education and work opportunities. In 2020, the Chief Inspector of prisons said that half the prisons inspected had too few programmes of useful activity. Under two fifths were assessed as delivering 'good' or 'reasonably good' activities compared with more than two thirds in 2009-10
• Incentives and earned privileges (IEPs)

  Rewards that prisoners can earn for keeping within the rules. There are three IEP levels: basic, standard and enhanced. On entering the prison, prisoner is put on the standard level, which might mean they are allowed to spend more of the money they earn, for example. Misbehaviour leads to the prisoner being reduced to the basic level and good behaviour means they can move to the enhanced level with additional privileges.
• Types of closed prisons

  • Cat A – Those who escape would be highly dangerous to the public, e.g.
• Inspector of prisons said that half the prisons inspected had too few programmes of useful activity
• Under two fifths were assessed as delivering 'good' or 'reasonably good' activities compared with more than two thirds in 2009-10
• Incentives and Earned Privileges (IEPs)

  Rewards that prisoners can earn for keeping within the rules. There are three IEP levels: basic, standard and enhanced. Misbehaviour leads to the prisoner being reduced to the basic level and good behaviour means they can move to the enhanced level with additional privileges.
• Prison service is nationally organised with numerous prisons situated around the UK
• When an offender is sentenced

  1. They are first placed in a local prison

  2. Given a security classification based on a risk assessment

  3. They may be moved to a more appropriate prison elsewhere
• Types of closed prisons

  • Cat A - Those who escape would be highly dangerous to the public
  • Cat B - Do not require maximum security, but for whom escape still needs to be made very difficult
  • Cat C - Cannot be trusted in open conditions but unlikely to escape
• Cat D prisons


  Can be reasonably trusted not to try to escape
• Prisons are paid for by the government out of taxation
• In 2018, the total budget for prisons was approximately £3bn – 16% lower than in 2010
• This resulted in cuts to staffing levels, with a 15% fall in the number of prison officers between 2010 and 2018
• As of 2020, almost 1/3 of staff had less than three years of experience
• The average cost of keeping a prisoner in public sector prisons in 2019 was £41,136 per year, or £42,591 in private prisons
• Categories to analyse


  • Agency
  • Philosophy
  • Aims and Objectives
  • Working Practices
  • Funding
  • Types of Criminality
  • Types of Offender
  • Reach (local, national)
• National Probation Service (NPS)


  A 'statutory criminal justice service that supervises high risk offenders released into the community and provides statutory support to victims of serious sexual or violent crime'