AC3.4 (police, CPS, judges)

evaluation of the effectiveness of the police when It to comes offences of public concern

strengths

• made progress in prioritising offences of public concern - e.g. DV - increase of cases being reported & recorded

• 2/3 abuse practitioners felt the polices approach had improved in the previous years

weaknesses

• police aren’t using bail conditions to protect victims

• staff shortages → delays in responding to incidents - puts victims at risk

• body-worn cameras aren’t always being used to gather evidence

current trends in the police

1. more crime, yet fewer solved by police

2. failing to investigate a number of crimes

3. funding issues

stats for more crime

police stats - crime is increasing - number of offences rose from 4.5 million in 2016 → 5.8 million in 2020

police clear up rates have been falling - 2015, 15% of cases resulted in someone being charged with an offence → 2020, fallen to 7%

stats for investigation

2018 - met police service dropped 2.9x as many cases on the day they were reported as they had done in 2013

stats for funding

from 2010 - gov have made major cuts in police budgets → police dropping investigations

how to CSEW stats differ from police stats

CSEW - found the overall crime rate has been level or falling in recent years rather than increasing as police stats indicate

differ because:

• don’t include crimes against businesses or children under 10

• only a sample of the pop - underestimates some less common but more serious crimes

• police stats tend to pick up more serious crimes

how have the police been criticised over racism

• recruitment of officers from ethnic minority backgrounds has increased - still underrepresented in senior ranks

• stop & searches are still disproportionately used against black & other minority groups (10x)

• if the police fail to establish a positive relationship with all sectors of the community based on consent & trust their ability to investigate & clear up crimes will be hindered

how have the police been criticised over their use of the media

accusations of police using media to portray a ‘crimebusters’ image

• 2014 - south Yorkshire police invited to BBC to film their raid on the home of Sir Cliff Richards → no charges brought → had to pay damages to BBC

• criticised for overreacting to media-driven moral panics - draws police attention & resources away from other areas of criminality that may be more serious

evidence of success by CPS

• in a typical 3 month period it prosecutes around 80,000 cases in the crown court

• around 80% of defendants it prosecutes are convicted

how can the CPS’s conviction rate be increased

if the CPS took 350 weak cases out of the system their conviction rate would go up to 61%

why has dropping weak cases been criticised & by who

Alison Levitt QC - ‘a system that only prosecutes safe cases is sending a message that vulnerable people are open to abuse as the CPS will not prosecute’

how has the full code test been criticised

CPS should be focused less on trial outcomes & more on bringing cases to justice

• the number of rapes reported rose by 1/3 from 2016-2020, but the number of prosecutions fell by 60%

how have budget cute affected the CPS

suffered budget cuts of 25% & lost 1/3 of its staff

• evidence disclosure - digital technology is imposing heavy workloads on staff with the need to analyse content of smartphones to gather evidence

overall criticisms of the CPS

• too close to the police

• too bureaucratic, inefficient, & slow in proceeding with cases - victims & defendants have to put their lives on hold for many months

• failure to communicate with relevant parties - cases where suspects have found out that their case has been dropped by reading about it in the media

• failure to build cases - Damalola Taylor

why are judges bias

some come from narrow, unrepresentative sections of society:

• 68% are male

• more than half are over 50

• 7% of judges are from ethnic minority backgrounds

case study for gender bias in sentencing

Judge James Pickles

• 1989 - sentenced a man to probation after he was convicted of sexually assaulting a 6 year old

• 1989 - jailed a woman for contempt of court for refusing to testify against her ex-boyfriend

• 1990 - sentenced a 19 year old mother to 6 months in prison for theft - commented that getting pregnant was no reason to escape custody

case study for class bias in sentencing

Lavinia Woodward - 24 year old Oxford uni medical student

during sentencing she was told that a jail term would damage her prospects of a medical career → given a suspended sentence

• Hirsch - her treatment contrasts sharply with that of other women in the CJS that usually come from deprived backgrounds & receive custodial sentences

are judges in touch & how could this be a danger

• Karen Warner - interviewed Australian jurors about judges - found: most didn’t think judges were out of touch

• danger - judges being in touch could lead to them being swayed or unduly influenced by public opinion, media outrage & moral panics - being out of touch may just mean remaining independent

are judges lenient in their sentencing

few applications to review sentences are made & not all of these are referred to the court of appeal

• 2018 - 140 cases were referred - 99 had their sentences increased

when have judges been criticised for unduly server sentencing

London Riots 2011