AC 3.3

• how can they test you in 2 ways for ac 3.3

  • Ask you about a limitation of a certain agent eg briefly describe/ explain limitations of police or CPS
  • ask you to discuss one certain limitation eg describe the impact people committing crimes due to moral imperatives has social control on them
• Moral Imperative


  A moral principle or rule that must be followed because it is considered wrong to do otherwise
• Limitations of agencies include

  • Funding
  • civil liberties and legal barriers
  • access to resource and Support/environment
  • recidivism
  • local and national policies
  • Crimes committed by those with moral imperatives
• Limitation of agencies- finance

  • CPS
  • Police
  • Probation
  • Prisons
• CPS- finance limitation 


  • 2010-2018 1/4 budget cut
  • 1/3 staff loss
  • Downgrading of cases to be heard in magistrates
  • Drop 350 'weak' rape cases
  • Can't keep up with technology
  • Issues with disclosure to evidence
• Police- finance limitation 


  • 2010-2018 19% budget cut
  • Loss of 2000 staff
  • Met police dropped 2.6x as many cases on the same day on 2017 compared to 2016
  • Not arriving at golden hour
  • Drop serious cases to tackle small ones
• Probation- finance limitation 


  • Issues with privatisation resulting in it how being public sector again
  • Dame Stacey part privatisation is flawed
  • 19/21 CRCs failed to meet targets
• Prisons- finance limitation 


  • 2010-2018 16% budget cut and 15% staff cut
  • Overcrowding doubled since 1993
  • 19 attacks a day on prison staff
  • Increase in riots
• Civil liberties and legal barriers

  • Freedom of speech
  • freedom of assembly
  • C Halliwell- nearly got away with murder due to steve fulcher breaking PACE
  • thompson and Vendables- European court of human rights said that they could not get a fair trial and were awarded compensation. Home Secretary breached human rights by raising standards
• Access to resources and support/Environment inside prisons

  • Short sentences do not give enough time to address issues
  • Inadequate resources
  • 2/5 prisons delivery reasonably good activities
  • 15% cut in staff means less staff to supervise activities eg library closed
  • Schemes such as releases on temp licence for training cannot happen due to lack of staff in the community
• 1/4 of prisoners have jobs on release
• Homelessness


  NARCO (found 1/9 prisoners have no settled accommodation)
• Community sentences


  • Inadequate support for complex needs
  • Inadequate supervision eg Marshall Case
  • Failures by CRCs- 19/21 failed
  • More likely to reoffend if you are homeless
  • Go back to to same social circle as before
  • Need family support but Prison reform trust found only 68% of prisoners do not have family visit
• Prison environment can be seen as university of crime
• Recidivism limitations

  • 63% of those who serve short sentences re offend within a year
  • 74% of juveniles who serve less than 6 months reoffend
  • agencies impact- probation- decrease in public protection, Bendall on prohibition since 2011.
  • prisons- overcrowding, prison pop doubled since 1993, 19 staff attacks a day and birmigham riots (over 500 involved)
  • judiciary- same offenders, sentencing guide note working
  • charities- seen as not successful and decrease in donations
  • police- overworked leading to prioritisation
  • CPS- overworked leading to dropped cases and making mistakes
• Local and National policies Limitations

  • policies made by the government can lead to things such as police prioritisation, Can lead to other crimes being neglected as focus moved onto new topic
  • national policies- increased police powers for stop and search and therefore focusing on lower class crime. Moral panics cause national changes eg dangerous dogs act
  • local Policies- weapon amnesty in London- 350 firearms handed in, police and staff focus on this and ignore other crimes
  • CPS focus on prosecution of crimes and linked to policies
• Crimes committed by those with moral imperatives- limitations

  • Morally the right thing to do- do not care about the consequences or threat of punishment eg assisted suicide
  • wes Omar stealing pigs, Ukraine sailer Sank Russian boss boat, suffragettes -numerous crimes eg homemade explosives, Emily Davidson and the horse . Changing voting law to 30 In 1918. Cat and Mouse act- hunger strikes.