Building on progress: Security, crime & justice
This document is the final product of a series of papers prepared for the Policy Review Ministerial Working Group on Security, Crime and Justice. It consists of four separate but related sections: on crime, security, immigration and cohesion. This review focuses on the section related to crime.
Title: Building on progress: Security, crime & justice
Authors: Policy Review Ministerial Working Group on Security, Crime and Justice
Number of pages: 105
Date published: March 2007
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Since 1997, the Government’s approach to crime has been grounded in being ‘tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime’. Significant progress has been made. Crime has fallen by 35% since 1997, with approximately 6 million fewer offences now committed each year compared with a decade ago. In addition, fear of crime has fallen , anti-social behaviour has decreased, and the risk of being a victim of crime is significantly lower now (24% of those surveyed) than at its peak in 1995 (when the figure was 40%).
However, society has changed rapidly, and patterns of criminality constantly evolve. New family structures, changing attitudes (such as declining deference), new and emerging technology, and other changes all have the potential to impact on future crime – and therefore on future crime policy. In addition to these longer-term structural challenges, the Government’s crime reduction strategy faces a number of more immediate challenges:
- crime figures from the latest British Crime Survey emphasise that the Government cannot be complacent about continued falls in crime
- a significant perception gap exists, with two-thirds of citizens believing that crime has been rising, despite significant falls
- the UK spends a higher proportion of GDP on security and tackling crime than most other EU countries. The question is how best to use this investment.
The Government’s aims remain to reduce crime and to improve the satisfaction and confidence of citizens in the criminal justice system. The strategy for achieving these aims will be informed by the Government’s vision for public service reform.
This implies a future strategy for tackling crime that involves:
- more targeted and personalised approach to tackle the most serious and persistent crime and offenders and to ensure that the criminal justice system reflects appropriately the needs and priorities of individual victims and citizens
- a new balance between rights and responsibilities, with law-abiding citizens placed at the heart of the criminal justice system and empowered to influence crime-fighting priorities in their own communities
- a particular focus on those areas that suffer the greatest levels of crime while improving outcomes for all citizens
- engagement with criminal justice workforces in service innovation and reform.
The Government will deliver this strategy through a three-pronged approach of prevention, detection and enforcement, and reform of the criminal justice system.
Prevention
- Intervene early to prevent criminality from developing, tackle the underlying causes of crime and address social exclusion, dysfunctional families, drugs and alcohol abuse
- Target the offender, not the offence, by using personalised case management to target the most prolific and serious offenders in particular
- ‘Design out’ crime in products and places, and raise potential victims’ awareness, reducing opportunities to offend and reoffend
Detection and enforcement
- Use new types of summary powers and extend the application of existing powers to ensure flexible responses to different crimes from anti-social behaviour to more serious and organised crime
- Improve the effectiveness and targeting of non-custodial sentences and prison rehabilitation programmes by developing non-custodial sentences that are tough and enforceable, have a strong restorative element and are seen as effective by the public, while improving the targeting and effectiveness of prison rehabilitation programmes
- Make greater use of new technology, such as biometric data, to help stop and detect crime – and ensure that support for the use of such technology is maintained by putting in place safeguards to protect the rights of law-abiding citizens.
Reform of the criminal justice system
- Apply the Government’s principles of public service reform to institutions in the criminal justice system, so that the different institutions work together better and there is the right balance between pressure from government (top-down performance management), pressure from citizens (choice and voice), competitive provision (where appropriate) and measures to build the capability and capacity of civil and public servants and central and local government
- Reform the criminal justice workforces, improving police workforce efficiency, establishing more effective mechanisms (including with the judiciary) for managing court performance, and creating a greater role for prosecutors in resolving lower-risk, uncontested cases out of court
- Ensure that policing is more visible and more locally accountable and work with the police on a review to identify options for reducing bureaucracy, increasing local accountability, mainstreaming Neighbourhood Policing and managing its resources effectively.
The diagram below sets out the ways in which this approach builds on the achievements of the past decade and lays the ground for substantial improvement in the future.
| Approach of the last decade | Approach going forward | |
Early intervention and prevention | ||
| Action to reduce poverty and unemployment, and increased funding for rehabilitation, but limited evidence on the most effective interventions |  | Use new evidence on what works to increase effective early and rehabilitative interventions to tackle dysfunctional families and individuals in order to prevent criminality from developing |
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| A new approach for case management developed, with some ‘grip’ of the most prolific and serious offenders | | Make personalised case management a reality for all offenders and bring a renewed focus to serially prolific offenders |
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| Community safety and regeneration funds used to improve residential security, with some action on mobile phones | | Broaden situational responses, focusing on high-crime places and products, backed by action with businesses at a national level |
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| Increased use of technologies (such as CCTV and DNA) in the fight against crime | | Increase detection through sophisticated new technologies (including making greater use of identity data and DNA), while ensuring public support through stronger safeguards to protect citizens |
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| New powers, such as Anti-Social Behaviour Orders and Fixed Penalty Notices, to tackle anti-social behaviour | | Introduce new powers to increase action against a broader range of crime, from anti-social behaviour to more serious and organised crime |
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| Significant toughening of the sentencing environment, with greater use of prison and community sentences | | Stabilise sentencing by making non-custodial sentences more effective and strengthen the effectiveness of rehabilitation programmes in prison |
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| Increased police, and greater flexibility through neighbourhood teams and community support officers. New Private Finance Initiative prisons, trials of specialist courts and proposals for reformed offender management | | Introduce more ambitious public service reform across the criminal justice system, with a particular focus on more flexible workforce reform and public-facing local accountability |
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Last update: Tuesday, March 27, 2007