How Does Public Learn about Crime and Victimisation - Essay Example

How does public learn about crime and victimisation Discuss, with specific reference to official crime statistics, how accurately that information is presented First let us define crime and victimisation: Legally crime is defined as an act proscribed by the criminal law and is punishable through the criminal justice system. In our everyday life we encounter with various kinds of crimes like murder, rape, assault, theft, robbery, to the lesser misdemeanors like driving above speed limit or driving with excess alcohol etc. etc. The perception of the society in general may differ about the severity of the crime depending upon the kind of crime, society in which crime take place and place of crime. White colour crimes are perceived as less heinous in public mind. Some crimes like driving with excess alcohol, disobeying traffic rules, petty pilfering from work place, death of patient due to negligence of medical staff also carries lesser severity in public mind. The term Victimisation derived from the notion of responsibility of a victim for the cause of crime. For example there is a school of thought that, in quite a lot of cases the victims are also partly responsible, like in case of theft from car where the driver keeps the door unlocked or in case of rape where the victim gives opportunity to the offender by visiting him alone etc. The public learns about crime from various sources, press being one of the very important one. One can learn about crimes from police records, crime survey and official statistics released by the Govt. The official statistics released by the Govt. reveal lots of information like: 1. No. of offences recorded by police and the categories of offences 2. Percentage of offences 'cleared up' by the police 3. No. of offenders convicted and cautioned categorizing by age, sex, type of offence 4. No. of court proceedings and sentences category wise as mentioned above. 5. Increase or decrease of crime They also release 'supplementary Statistics' where more detailed information on specific offences is given. Home office also releases 'Criminal Justice Digest', which gives summaries of the above statistics. They also release selected statistics in their website for Internet access. Home office also maintains 'Offender Index', which holds data on individuals convicted of serious crime. The compilation of data for the statistics to be made available is a very cumbersome process. It involves interaction of various agencies of the criminal justice systems including various police forces. The department politics also can effect the compilation of data. Hence statistics can never be wholly accurate. Many offences like those recorded by agencies outside the home office are not recorded. As mentioned earlier, some offences gets diluted as they are perceived as lesser offences, and they are also not included. Offences like domestic violence, sexual offences, drug offences get omitted, as they are not readily detectable by the public or police. Offences like illegal gambling, drug abuse, pornography, prostitution etc. where there is no discernable victims, also gets omitted. It will be safe to assume that the official statistics reveals which crime public chose to report and the perception of the police of the seriousness of the crimes. (Word count 505) Pages 59-61, 75-79 (2) What are the aims of sentencing Is one more effective than any of the other The key element of a criminal justice process is sentencing. Hence first we need to find out the justification for sentencing: The sentencing will ensure that the offender is made to pay for his crime, it will give a sense of satisfaction to the victims, it will create faith in other possible victims and society in general on the law of the land, and create fear in the other possible offenders, which will in effect reduce crime and prevent private vengeance. Now what are the aims of sentencing As we see Sentencing has to address three sets of people: 1) Offender 2) Victim 3) General Public. Six Aims of sentencing is propagated in most jurisdictions, namely 1. Retribution1: The purpose of retribution is to take retaliation on the convict for his crime. In this approach the quantum of punishment depends on two factors: culpability and blameworthiness. Before conviction the court has to decide whether the defendant is culpable of the crime or acted in self-defense. If we see logically, it does not address the justification of sentencing; reductions of crime, nor does it help in changing the offender's behavior. 2. Incapacitation2 for Public protection: this process puts the convicts to physical restrain, which makes them incapable of repeating the crime. It may form of putting them in jail or other forms like withdrawing licenses of drivers, or withdrawing licenses of professionals like accountants, doctors etc. Retribution wants to give punishment for wrong doing whereas Incapacitance wants to restrain from future wrongdoing. 3. Rehabilitation3: aims to change the offender. Here it is assumed that the crime is a disease and the criminal needs to be cured from the disease of crime. As it has the support of social science, this process is getting wider popularity. Rehabilitation is a complicated process and requires a) Monitoring and Classification: The needs of the convict have to be assessed for rehabilitation before sentencing and the status and progress of the convict to be monitored. b) Individualism: There is need of preparing the rehabilitation program for each individual convict for which flexible ranges of sanctions and resources like counseling, training etc. should be available. c) Indeterminacy. For serious crime where it is felt that there is a possible threat to the public, a special confinement may be needed. But the aim of the confinement should be to treat the offender not to punish him/her. 4. Deterrence4: In this process the emphasis is on threat of punishment on the assumption that, offenders, fearing punishment will refrain from crime. It is suitable for small offences. 5. Denunciation5: In this process the sentences convey the society's outrage, official disapproval and social censure at the particular offence. 6. Restitution or Reparation6: This addresses the interest of the victims. The offender compensates the victim. This aim is mainly suitable for financial crimes. As we see among all the aims of sentencing Rehabilitation seems to be more effective than others as it tries to treat the root cause of crime by changing the criminal. (Word count - 507) (3) What is PACE and why is it such an important piece of legislation The (PACE) Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 is a legislative framework for the powers of police officers and codes of practice to be followed for the exercise of those powers. The main purpose of the act is to define power of the police and to provide safeguards to the suspects. It sought to modernise and rationalise the police power and to reform aspects of the law relating to criminal evidence. One advantage of the act for the police force is that, the codes of the act can be changed without the sanction of legislature. The codes cover all areas of Policing: Code A Power to Stop and Search: It deals with the power of an officer to stop and search a person or vehicle without making an arrest. The police officer needs to record of the search and the searched person must be told reasons for the search and his/her right to copy of the search record. Code B Search of Premises and properties: It deals with Search Power like Search Warrants, Entry for searching and arrest, entry and search after arrest, search on arrest, searches of detained people and Intimate searches. Code C Detention treatment and questioning of suspects: sets out the requirements for the detention, treatment and questioning of people in police custody by police officers. It provides a comprehensive and detailed framework for the treatment of the suspects and arrestees at the police station. Code D Identification of Procedures: concerns the main methods used by the police to identify people in connection with the investigation of offences and the keeping of accurate and reliable criminal records. Code E Tape Recording of Interviews. It provides for tape recording of Interviews for the protection of the suspects as well as police officers conducting interviews. Code F: deals with the visual recording with sound of interviews with suspects. New additions to PACE in the year 2006: Code G: deals with statutory powers of arrest Code H: deals with the detention of terrorism suspects PACE is a significant piece of legislation because: 1. It was made to modernise and rationlise the police powers. 2. It provides accountability on the part of police officers 3. It gives safeguards to the suspects. The police officer us responsible for well being of a suspect under custody. They should be provided of minimum level of comfort during detention. 4. Vulnerable groups like young people and mentally ills are protected. The presence of an adult, either parent or social worker is a must while interviewing them. 5. It provides provisions for maintenance of records 6. It protects rights of a suspect in custody or during interview or during search. 7. The deterrent of the act amounts to inadmissible of evidence in case of breach of provision of the code by a police officer. And it may lead to civil and criminal proceedings as well as disciplinary action against the erring officer. PACE was significantly modified by the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005. The new act almost replaced the existing powers of arrest with a new general power of arrest. (Word count 515) Pages 106 - 113 (4) Discuss the roles of victims with the criminal justice system. The Role of the victims in crimnal Justice system should have been cruical but unfortunately it's not. It will be proper to say that the victims are the forgotten element in the criminal justice system. The state prosecution and legal systems is geared up in such a fashion that the official agencies became the wholesale authority, forgeting the rights of the vicitms. The role of the victim ends once they report the case to the police. Subsequest function can be termed as frustrating, mentally agonising experience. They are not informed the progress of the case. Except calling them as witness the prosecution authority ignore tham alltogether. A victims charter was introduced in the year 1990 and its second edition in 1996, The charter has the following provisions: 1. The victim should be infromed of the officer dealing with the case. 2. Police must record the loss of the victim which should be passed on to the CPS, for the victim to get compensation in case someone is charged. 3. The police should keep the victim informed about the progress of the case, trial dates, bail and sentencing. 4. In case of decision to caution is taken, the police should give this information to the victims so that they are aware that they have a right to approach civil court and they can avail compensation from CICB. 5. At the time of sentencing the court must allow for compensation to the victim. 6. Commitment to improve faciltities for victim witness called to court like providing special waiting room, reduceing their waiting time etc. However progress on this charter came only 1993, when it was announced that the Govt. has accpeted the recommendations by the Royal Commission on Criminal Justice in better information on the progress of the cases, better consultation with the victims, better witness facilities. The role of victims in sentencing: There is lots of arguments of the role of victim in sentencing. One group points out the benefits of involving the victim like; it will give psychological benefit, it will encourage the victim to co-operate with the prosecuting agencies, and the court will be aware of the kind of suffering the victim has gone through. However in doing so the court may succumb to the subjectivity of the victim rather than the objectivity of the case. In some others' opinion like Ashworth(1993), it will undermine the fundamental prinicples of criminal law - the culpability and intent. They point out that the basis of the judgemnet should be the offender's intent instead of the victims sufferings. In recent years, Reparation and Restitution have become more popular. In today's popular restorative justice system where the emphasis on reducing crime by reforming the offender is adopeted, the victims participation plays vital role. But this method will be limited to certain kind of criminal cases. In serious issues like homicide, rape and attempted murder, the victims participation will only increase his/her agony and suffering. Overall we can conclude that the victims should play a defintie role in criminal justice system, which will help in peoples faith in criminal justice system. (Word count 516) Pages 375 -380 (5) Michael Howard suggested that 'prison works'. Discuss whether or not imprisonment leads to the rehabilitation of an offender. To answer whether or not imprisonment leads to the rehabilitation of an offender, first we have to look at the goals of imprisonemnt. Prison Service in the year 1990, in its mission statement, has set out the goals of imprisonment: 'Prison Service serves the public by keeping in custody those committed by the courts. Our duty is to look after them with humanity and help them law abiding and useful lives in custody and after release'. As per the goal set by themselves the effectiveness of the prisons can be assessed by monitoring the success of their set goals. The set goals are defined as; to create the conducive environment which can assist the inmates to respond and contribute to the societ positively, to preserve and promote their self-respect, to minimise the security inside the prison to the comfort level of the inmates, and to prepare them for the outside society on their discharge. They have introduced Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for assessing the performance against the set goals. We also see that the last part of the statement states for ' help them...useful lives in custody and after release' talks about the rehabilitation of the offender. The prison service seeks to offer a congenual atmosphere to allow the offenders get an opportunity to mend their ways. However in a white paper released in 1990, it is conculded that the Prisons are counter productive in this regard. The report states that nobody regards imprisonment as effective means of rehabilitation of prisoners. Normal social or working habits do not fit in prison, here no sense of personal responsibilities from the prisoners exist. The limitataions of prisons as rehabilitations of offenders is recognised in the Home office (1988a) green Paprer 'Punishment, custody and the community' which points out many unintended consequesnces of imprisonment which made them counter productive for rehabilitaion of the offender. To find an answer to the question we can go to the statistics of further offence committed by a convict after discharge from prison. If we look at the figures in the reconviction rate released by England and Wales, we see that the conviction rate is reasonably high for an offender convicted earlier. For example, in probation sentence; it is 50% who has 1 or 2 previous convictions, 63% who have 3 to 6 previous convictions, 71% who has 7 to 10 previous convictions and 77% who have more than 11 previous convictions. To achieve this goal a more progressive approach in prisons is needed. A few suggestions worth mentioning: 1. Encourage Self-responsibility among the prisoners. 2. Help prisoners maintain links with their family, friends and social workers, thereby keeping them in tune with the outside world 3. Treating them with respect. 4. Fostering conducive and positive goals in rehabilitative terms, which will encourage prison staff to treat the prisoners with some degree of decency, which in turn will induce decency in the prisoners on themselves. As in case of sentencing, in prison also rehabilition approach will only ensure the reduction of crime rate in the society at large. (Word count 510) pages 334-343 (6) Who used the phrase 'Institutional racism' in a major Report Explain what is meant by the term and why it is so important that agencies within the criminal justice system should monitor such racism. Black nationalist, pan-africanist, and honorary Prime Minister of Black Panther Party, Stokely Charmichael coined the phrase 'Institutional Racism' and defined the term as "the collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin". Institutional reacism is refers to the recism occurs in work place, in public domain, in govt agencies etc. The Institutional racism is prevalent in all societies in all over world. Let's keep our focus on UK and Western countires. And as we are concerned about the importnace of agencies within criminal justice, we will confine ourselves with the racism in police forces in UK. Institutional Racism in England got wide publicity after publication of Macpherson report on racism in police in the year 1999. The report followed an inquiry into the Metropolitan police's investigation of the murder of an eighteen year old student, Stephen Lawrence. He was stabbed in an unprovoked attack while waiting for a bus at Eltham, South London. Sir William Macpherson in his report delivered a damning assessment of racism in British Police force. Macpherson defines Institutional Racism as collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people due to the colour, culture and the ethnic origin of the people. He stresses that the same can be seen in processes, attitudes and behaviour. He cites the discriminations the minority ethnic group receives through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, racist stereotyping and thoughtlessness. 'Institute for the study of civil society, London', in its report, 'Institutional Racism and the Police: Fact or Fiction' published in august 2000, gives a few dimensions of Institutional Racism. They refuted some charges of the Macpherson report, but generally agree to the points raised by Macpherson. This report also gives some action taken by the Metropolitan Police Service to tackle racism in the force. They claim that in August 1998, the Racial and Violent Crime Task Force (RVCTF) was established to combat racism. They established an Intelligence Cell Analysis System (ICAS) staffed by forward thinking strategic and tactical analysts with innovative intelligence officers to provide a clearer and more focused picture of racism. Community Safety Units were launched in June 1999, to provide corporate focus for the investigation and prevention of racist/hate crime. They pointed out that within eighteen months of the creation of RVCTF, there had been a 900 per cent increase in racist / hate intelligence and 250 percent increase in arrest and reporting. The authors of the report emphasis that in Britain after Stephen Lawrence, every institution has a responsibility to examine their behaviour, perception and prejudices. They emphasize that the defence of unwitting racism is no more valid. Passive non-racism is no longer acceptable. Institutional Racism is prevalent in every society but the agencies within criminal justice system have a bigger responsibility towards addressing Institutional Racism. The citizen are expected to go them for redressed of their grievances, hence it is not only important that they should follow the anti-racism trust but also need to be seen following the same. (Word count 509) BIBLIOGRAPHY David G. Green (Editor), John G.D. Grieve & Julie French, Michael Ignatieff Mike O'Brien, Robert Skidelsky, Institutional Racism and the Police: Fact or Fiction Institute for the study of civil society, Londona http://www.civitas.org.uk/pdf/cs06.pdf 'Race: The Macpherson report', BBC NEWS, Monday, 7 May, 2001, 14:48 GMT http://news.bbc.co.uk/vote2001/hi/english/main_issues/sections/facts/newsid_1190000/1190971.stm Read More