The Thin Blue Line

[Saintjay]

What happens when you spend more money reacting to crime than preventing it.

Historically the police can't measure how many crimes they prevented other than lowering crime recording. Hence why they concentrate on arrests and solved crime rates, conviction rates, responce times.

I sat on a meeting once where a senior police officer argued neighbourhood watches increased crime figures and the fear of crime. In theory you could actively reduce some crime figures by reducing neighbourhood watch. Ie if we don't know about it then it's not recorded

 

[Reiser99]

I guess its reacting but also trying to deter crime by making prison sentences longer.

Yeah but that's been proven not to work. Making sentences tougher has just put more people in prison. Instead of filling up prisons to the point that police are asked not to solve crimes, how about address the reasons people turn to crime. Young people are joining drugs gangs and at the same time the government cuts funding to youth services. These kids are more likely to end up in a gang. Poverty, education and job prospects are a huge reason, we have more people and children in poverty, education keeps getting cut and people feel they have no viable path in life.

 

[Reiser99]

Historically the police can't measure how many crimes they prevented other than lowering crime recording. Hence why they concentrate on arrests and solved crime rates, conviction rates, responce times.

I sat on a meeting once where a senior police officer argued neighbourhood watches increased crime figures and the fear of crime. In theory you could actively reduce some crime figures by reducing neighbourhood watch. Ie if we don't know about it then it's not recorded

My point was less about police actually and fixing the issues in society that cause people to commit crimes in the first place.

 

[Saintjay]

My point was less about police actually and fixing the issues in society that cause people to commit crimes in the first place.

I get you, my reply was really based on why the Police don't focus on cause. Everyone seems to just want to be tough on crime less so the causes.

 

[ncurd]

Yeah but that's been proven not to work. Making sentences tougher has just put more people in prison. Instead of filling up prisons to the point that police are asked not to solve crimes, how about address the reasons people turn to crime. Young people are joining drugs gangs and at the same time the government cuts funding to youth services. These kids are more likely to end up in a gang. Poverty, education and job prospects are a huge reason, we have more people and children in poverty, education keeps getting cut and people feel they have no viable path in life.

Yup that was my point.

 

[Reiser99]

Yup that was my point.

Sorry misread.

 

[Reiser99]

Linked to our discussion.

Target to cut court backlog cannot be met, says watchdog

The National Audit Office says delays are affecting victims and risking cases collapsing.

www.bbc.co.uk

Apparently the task group created to solve the issue never met once in 2 years...