CRIMINAL FAIRNESS AND THE CRIME PROBLEM

Criminal Justice and the Crime Problem

Criminal Justice and the Crime Problem

From 1901 to 1916 the tendency was downwards. The population was at its lowest level in the inter-war years at about 10-11,000. In the 1940s the community started to increase: between 1946 and 1986 the average male jail community advanced by about 800 per annum. 14 declines occurred between 1951-56 and 1986- 91. ·The latter decrease in the jail community was due to principle intervention between 1989 and 1992. The population declined from 46,800 (in 1986) to 44,800 (in 1991).

(From page 1 of the Findings) Trends in Recorded Crime.

Figure 1

Reporting rates for certain crimes.

Figure2

Factors relating to victimization rates for burglary.

Figure 4

(From page 111 of the Findings) Perceptions of changing crime levels.

Figure 5

The female prisoner population at the beginning and end of the century numbered 3,100. The total number of female prisoners was lowest in 1936, when there were 674 women in jail. · Women prisoners are a falling percentage of the total average prison population this century. In 1901 women comprised 16% of all prisoners. By 1971 they enumerated only 3% of the total. The proportion of women prisoners has risen slightly since the 1970s; in 1998 5% of all prisoners were female. There are many problems with relying on official statistics to measure crime levels. Firstly, according to Maguire (1997) these figures do not include offences recorded by forces outside home office responsibility, for example, the transport police. Each year over 80,000 crimes are recorded, external to the home office. Secondly, these figures can often give an inaccurate picture of the amount of crimes committed. Many offences (tax evasion, as recorded by the Inland Revenue) only appear in official records if the matter is then brought to court. (Gellis Tims 2009 Pp. 44)

Therefore records of such incidents are practically invisible due to the low prosecution rate. Another reason for not relying on official statistics comes from the fact that not all reported offences are actually recorded by the police. The amount of money and resources available to the police, the courts and the prison service has to be taken into account before deciding which crimes to act upon. Only recorded crime enters the statistics. Police do not take note of certain offences although they are obliged to do so. Certain crimes are not seen as important or serious enough and in ...