Policy development

• Zero tolerance

  Imposes a punishment for every infraction of a stated rule. Zero tolerance policies forbid people in positions of authority to change punishments to fit the circumstances subjectively; they are required to impose a pre-determined punishment regardless of individuals circumstances
• Rehabilitation

  The idea that the purpose of punishment is to apply treatment and training to the offender so that he is made capable of returning to law society and functioning as a law-abiding member of the community. This could be linked to left realism.
• Sterilisation

  Prevents the person from having children.

  This links to the fact that criminal behaviour is inherited. Sterilisation prevents it being passed on to the next generation.
• Lobotomy

  Removing the part of the brain that is responsible for criminal behaviour.
• Restorative justice

  Victims and offenders communicating within a controlled environment to talk about the harm that has been caused and finding a way to repair that harm. It empowers victims by giving them a voice. It also holds offenders to account for what they have done to helps them to take responsibility.
• What is Penal populism?

  • The government’s attempt to create punitive criminal law with sentences for offenders that will be popular with the public are reform as ‘penal populism’
  • Fuelled by media headlines about the need not to be soft on crime and that offenders needed to be punished
  • Consequently, this had an impact on prison population as so many people where given prison sentences.
• Prison sentences can be:

  Concurrent - serving more than one sentence at the same time

  Consecutive - serving sentences one after the other

  Suspended - the court orders the sentence to be deferred in order to allow the defendant to perform a period of probation

  Determinate - a fixed length

  Indeterminate - no fixed length
• Does prison work?

  According to the Bromley Briefings prison fact file (2017)

  • England and Wales has the highest imprisonment rate in Western Europe (147 per 1000 of the population)
  • Between 1993-2015 the prison population in England and Wales has nearly doubled (an extra 41,000)

  According to the National Audit Office there is no correlation between prison numbers and level of crime. Short prison sentences are less effective than community sentences. Despite nearly half (47%) of all people entering prison are serving a sentence of 6 months or less
• Identify three social changes that have affected policy development

  • Cigarette smoking
  • Womens rights
  • LGBTQ+
• Name polices that have come from biological theories

  • Diet and serotonin supplements
  • Sterilisation
  • Death penalty
• Name policies that have come from individualistic theories

  • psychoanalysis
  • behaviour modification
• Name policies that have come from sociological theories

  • penal populism
  • prison
  • zero tolerance
• What is the difference between formal and informal policy making

  • informal policy is linked to non-official ideas that prevent crime. This could be family rules such as grounding or withholding of pocket money.
  • formal policy is linked to official ideas to prevent crime such as prison sentences or community orders.
• Describe how social change can cause policy change

  While smoking was previously regarded as socially acceptable, as medical knowledge has advanced, popular attitudes towards smoking have changed. Law regarding smoking now reflect many of these changed attitudes. E.g the Health Act 2006 restricted smoking in public places and the Children and Families Act 2015 prohibited smoking in vehicles when children are present
• Describe how social change can cause policy change

  Attitudes towards sexuality have evolved over a long period of time, and have resulted in legal changes that have allowed civil partnerships (Civil Partnership Act 2004), same sex marriages (Marriage Same Sex Couples Act 2013) and since 31 December 2019, civil partnerships for mixed sex couples (Civil Partnership, Marriages and Deaths Act 2019)
• Describe how social change can cause policy change

  Values regarding the status of women have changed and there have been developments in the law relating to women’s rights and status, including property rights, domestic abuse and legislation dealing with controlling behaviour. The Serious Crime Act 2015 allows for psychological abuse to be considered as domestic abuse.