AC3

• Explain the role of agencies in social control?

  Aims & Objectives

  Funding

  Philosophy

  Working practices
• What is the role of the Police in social control?

  Aim: To search, detain, search and interview suspects

  • Protect life and property

  Funding: Central Government. Some income is raised through council tax

  Philosophy: Honest, integrity, authority, respect and equality

  Working Practices: Respond to emergency/non-emergency calls, specialist teams e.g anti-terrorism teams

  • PSCO work on the frontline dealing with anti-social behaviour
• What is the role of the CPS in social control?

  Aim: Decide which cases should be prosecuted, determine the charge in serious/complex cases and advises the police

  • Preparing and presenting cases in court

  Funding: By Parliament (2016-17 budget was over £500 million) also from recovering criminal assets

  Philosophy: Independence, fairness, honesty and openness

  Working Practices: CPS offer 24/7 service to the police regarding advice from the CPS

  • Code of practice: 'Full code' test involves evidential stage (reliable), public interest (public interest to bring case to court)
• What is the role of the Probation in social control?

  Aim: Supervises high risk offenders (300,000 offenders a year)

  • Protect public through the rehabilitation of offenders

  Funding: Centrally by the government

  • Served by 35 probation trusts, NPS= Funded by NOMS through income tax

  Philosophy: That offenders can change for the better and become responsible members of society

  • Commitment to social justice, equality and diversity

  Working Practices: Write pre-sentence reports

  • Prepare prisoners for release on licence
• What is the role of the Judiciary in social control?

  Aim: Interpret, apply law, pass sentence and set/follow precedent

  • Crown Court Judge: Make decisions about law including interpretations/application & inform jury about procedure
  • Magistrate Court Judge: Decides both the sentence and the convictions
  • Supreme Court Judge: Decides points of law and interpret the law setting precedent for lower courts to follow

  Funding: The salaries are decided following the recommendation of the SSRB

  Philosophy & Working Practices: Immorality (not favour of either side), integrity and ensuring equal treatment
• What is the role of the Prison in social control?

  Aim: Keep those sentenced in custody & help them lead law-abiding

  Funding: Comes from the government through taxation

  Prisons are divided into 4 levels: Category A-D, A is high risk, maximum security. Cat D: low risk/open prisons
• What is the role of the Charities/Pressure groups in social control?

  Aim: To reduce unnecessary imprisonment and improve the treatment

  Funding: Rely on donations e.g Prison Reform Trust

  Working Practices: Help prisoners prepare for release from prison e.g Howard League of Penal Reform, oldest penal reform charity in the UK (Aims for less crime)
• What environment tactics are used to achieve social control?

  Environmental designs

  Gated Lanes

  CPTED

  Surveillance
• How does environment contribute to achieving social control?

  As it involves what a neighbourhood looks like & how it is designed to lower crime in the area

  - Oscar Newman: An architect who argued some spaces are defensible while others are indefensible
• 2) How does environment contribute to achieving social control?

  CPTED- Originated from Criminologist CR Jeffery.

  Which based the idea that crime happens due to the opportunities presented by the physical environment. If you alter the environment, crime should decrease

  • Crime can be decreased by: Creating open spaces, with strong lighting, no blind spots, low level bushes, CCTV & surveillance
• What is gated lanes?

  They are used to prevent anti-social behaviour and crime

  • Installed at entrances of rear alleyways in order to deter burglars
  • Expensive (£4,000)
  • Residents in Preston felt a sense of 're-claiming their streets' (extra security)

  Functionalist theory: Believe crime is inevitable, social regulations reaffirms the boundaries

  Marxist Theory: Believe it is a way of protecting the boegarsy and not the proletariat
• What is an example of prison design?

  Involves Panopticon shape

  • Which allows the observer to view all prisoners without the prisoner being aware they're being watched
  • They are compelled to regulate their own behaviour
• What is another example of prison design?

  Category A-D: A being superman (most dangerous criminals) HM Wakefield used super max security. Cat D: Open prisons (trusted to serve their sentence) with minimal supervision. HMP Stanford Hill

  • Norway has designs that are like 'holiday camps' where prisoners live in houses with mostly free movements around the vicinity
• What behavioural tactics are used?

  ASBOs

  CBOs

  Token Economy
• What is behavioural tactics?

  It is tactics used by agencies to change a person's behaviour to make them more socially compliant
• How do ASBOs and CBOs achieve social control?

  ASBOs: Introduced in 1998, to limit and correct low level anti-social behaviour. If breached it would be punishable up to 5 years in prison

  CBOs: Used against anti-social offenders who have committed behaviour that has caused alarm and distress. May get a CPN would be 3 month detention age 14-17yrs

  • If you have a CPN order you would be jammed from taking part in certain activities/going to certain places & having to try to change the behaviour through treatment programmes

  Right Realism: Approach is getting tough on crime
• What are the positives and negatives of CBOs?

  Positive: Reduces social isolation

  Positive: Second chance

  Positive: Rehabilitation

  Positive: Less expensive than prison

  
  

  Negative: Worn as a badge of honour

  Negative: Not considered harsh enough

  Negative: Can be costly if breached
• What is Token Economy?

  Used to control behaviour by rewarding positive behaviour & punishing negative behaviour

  • Prisons use this often through rewards & sanctions for positive/negative behaviour

  Rewards: Extra visiting time & financial payment
• What are the positives and negative of Token Economy?


  Positive: Field (2004) positive effect on young people with behaviour problems on the whole

  Positive: No specialist training required. Which can make it cheap/easy to implement

  Negative: Not effective long term, when no offered incentives. Reduction in offending after 2 years but not after 3 years

  Negative: other strategies such as anger management may be more useful

  Negative: Not rehabilitative
• What is institutional tactics?

  They have their own methods of controlling undesired behaviour through rules & punishments if these rules are broken

  • In prisons, you would not be following the rules if you: Caused damage, ignored the instructions of prison staff or threatened/attacked someone else
  • ^^ In these situations, punishments are given such as cautions, privileges are tab away & extended prison time (e.g Increase maximum of 42 days) and being confined in your prison cell (up to 35 days)

  Learning Theory: As IEPS is used in prisons in England and Wales. Introduced in 1995
• Where are institutional tactics used?

  Courts: Sent to prison & community orders

  Probation: Send back to prison, control more closely & tags

  Police: Arrest, stop and search, cautions & confiscate
• Gaps in state provision

  Areas where the state fails to adequately address or respond to certain issues
• Unreported crime


  • Police can only detect crime if it is brought to their attention and reported
  • There is a 'dark figure' of crime that goes undetected
• If crime is not reported

  Punishment cannot be sought after and criminality can continue
• Unreported crime


  • Domestic violence
  • White collar crime
• Budget cuts to the police

  Negatively impact convictions due to a lack of police offices on ground & having too many cases to deal with effectively
• Laws being implemented


  Can impact other laws, e.g. Terrorist being unable to be deported due to HRA 1998 (Escape Clause)
• What is involved with examine the limitations of agencies in achieving social control?

  1) Repeat offenders/recidivism

  2) Civil liberties and legal barriers

  3) Access to resources and support

  4) Finance

  5) Local & national Policies

  6) Environment

  7) Crime committed by those with moral imperatives
• What are the limitations of repeat offenders/recidivism in achieving social?

  Means re-offending

  • Recidivism is one of the main reasons why the prison population has increased the past 20 years
  • Re-offending rate in 2021 was 24% adults
  • Re-offending rate in 2021 was 31% for juviniles
  • Nearly 50% of those convicted returning to prison within a year

  Prisons are known as 'University Of Crime' because offenders learn from others

  Bandura Theory: Observation learning. Caused some offenders effectively 'improve in their criminality'
• What are the limitations of Civil liberties & legal barriers?

  Include: Freedom of speech, movement and association

  • ^^ Can limit social control as they restrict the police. I.e foreign nationals with criminal convictions cannot be removed from the Uk due to being in danger at their home. (EU regulations)

  Marxist theory- Approach would be these laws are necessary to protect working class from arbitarary judgement against them

  CASE STUDY: Abu Qatada v UK-

  Preacher couldn't be deported to Jordan because the risk of being tried there on evidence obtained by torture. Acquitted last month
• What are the limitations of Access to resources and support in achieving social?

  Limit prisoners being able to rehabilitate & therefore limits social control

  • Prisoners face problems with finance, accommodation and employment once released from prison
  • Lack of support/resources may mean prisoners are tempted to return to crime in order to survive
  • Bromley Briefing 2023: 64% of people entering prison were assessed as having literacy skills expected of an 11 year old

  Labelling Theory: Unable to integrate into society
• What are the limitations of Environment in achieving social?


  When prisoners are released their home environment can have a large impact on whether or not they stay out of prison

  • People are less likely to reoffend if they had family visits. 68% had no visits
  • Offenders are less likely to offend if they live with immediate family on release. Only 61% do so
  • Only 12% of employers said they had employed someone with criminal record

  Marxist Theory: Believe that the bourgeoisie construct the rules of society to prevent the proletariat from achieving in life
• What are the limitations of Finance in achieving social?


  Limited & budget cuts impact agencies in achieving social control

  • This leads to a shortage of police officers on the streets, a lack of prison staff and specialist teams
  • This impacts the experience of prisoners, by having less 'free time', more time in cells and higher rates of suicide/mental health issues

  Merton's strain Theory: Agencies feeling the strain, do not have the means to enforce their control

  Police: 2016, decreased by 25% in central grant

  CPS: 30% funding reduction Geoffrey Cox= miscarriages of justice
• What are the limitations of Crime committed by those with moral imperatives in achieving social?

  A moral imperative is a strongly felt principle that compels a person to act

  • Makes it difficult to achieve social control since these people would not be deterred by possible consequences

  Examples- Assisted suices

  Kay Gilderdale, helped her daughter commit suicide as she was suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome and wanted to die

  
  

  Example- The suffragettes

  Used militant (violent law breaking) campaigning for women

  links to Durkheim theory as breaking the law changed the law. Echoes
• What are the limitations of Local and national policies in achieving social?

  Local police forces priorities certain crimes over others depending on the scale of the problem in that area. This can mean some crimes are not investigated

  • National Government Policies found on certain crimes at a time e.g Knife crime, gang related crimes
  • Priorities: Communities safer & keeping the peace

  Right Realism Theory: Tough on crime in regards to gang violence
• What agencies are involved in evaluate the effectiveness of agencies in achieving social control?

  CPS

  Charity/Pressure groups

  Police

  Probation

  Judges

  Prisons
• Evaluate the effectiveness of CPS in achieving social control?

  Positives- CPS prosecuted over 800,000 cases in CC and 450,000 in MC in 2018

  • 84% of defendants prosecuted are convicted
  • Use full code test

  Negatives: Prosecutions for rape cases are falling despite increases in reporting

  • 30% budget cuts (Geoffrey Cox)
  • Cases can take months to process

  Case study: Lord Jenner- Escaped prosecution for sexual abuse of boys on three occasions due to failings by prosecution and police

  • CPS ineffective as there was enough evidence e.g Shared hotel room with 14yr old
• Evaluate the effectiveness of Charity/Pressure groups in achieving social control?

  Positives: Not restricted by the government

  • Supports inmates and families
  • Campaigns for better conditions & fairer treatment

  Negatives: Rely entirely on donations

  • people do not support
  • Media might be less positive about penal reform charities or not give publicity at all

  Penal reform and Howard League for penal reform

  PP- Raised over 22 mill since 2005

  HL- campaigns for books for prisoners
• Evaluate the effectiveness of Police in achieving social control?

  Positive- Effective at preventing crime and combating anti-social behaviour

  • High number of cases make it to trial every year due to their investigative work
  • There are now more police offices from minority ethnic backgrounds

  Negatives- Budget cuts mean fewer officers & less for investigating crime

  • ONS in 2017 found that police closed 48% of offences with no suspect identified
  • Home office shared crime increased by 10% (largest annual raise)
• What was the case study for police in achieving social control?

  Colin Stagg

  Police focussed in excessive manner, trying to incriminate him. Judge determined the evidence was entrapment and couldn't be included in the case per Colin's rights