Labour’s approach to overhauling the criminal justice system has been one of the most ambitious adopted by any government in the postwar period. There has been significant extra investment – in 2007-08 the criminal justice system received just under £23bn, a third more than it received 10 years ago. Spending on law and order now accounts for 2.5 per cent of GDP, the largest ever proportion, and the UK spends proportionately more on law and order than any other country in the OECD, including the US, France and Germany.
Together with this investment there has been relentless reform – in the past six years there have been four criminal justice plans, in the last 18 months alone there has been a five-year plan for reducing reoffending; a violent crime action plan; a wide-ranging criminal justice plan (cutting crime, reducing reoffending and protecting the public); and the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit’s Security, Crime and Justice policy review. No criminal justice agency has been left untouched by the government’s reforming zeal.
So what has this all achieved? On the face of it Labour’s record has been impressive. It has hit most of its criminal justice public service agreement targets, or is on course to do so. There have been a number of palpable changes: police numbers are at record levels, the time between arrest and sentence for young offenders has been cut dramatically, the number of drug users entering treatment has increased, more offences are being so-called ‘brought to justice’ and crime as measured by the British Crime Survey – known as the BCS – has fallen by 35 per cent since 1997.
The government’s record on reducing BCS-measured crime is considered by ministers to be one of its greatest achievements. They trumpet the fact that the chances of being a victim of crime are the lowest since the BCS was started in 1981. Justice secretary Jack Straw recently boasted that ‘this is the first postwar administration to preside over a sustained and substantial reduction in crime, rather than an increase.’
However, a closer look at the evidence suggests that success relating to crime and criminal justice is less clear-cut than ministers have tended to claim. In reality the government’s record is mixed and considerable challenges remain.
While overall BCS-measured crime has fallen, certain high-profile violent offences have been on an upward trend. Police-recorded levels of serious violence – recognised by the Home Office as a more reliable measure of violent crime than the BCS – show that homicide and grievous bodily harm increased year on year until 2005 and have only begun to decline slightly since then. Similarly the long-term trend in police-recorded robberies has been relentlessly upwards. By 2006-2007 recorded robberies were over 60 per cent higher than when Labour came to power 10 years previously. The number of stabbings involving knives and other sharp instruments is also rising. The police have only just begun collecting data but hospital data shows that stabbings have increased over the last decade. Police-led attempts to tackle violent street crime have clearly had a limited impact.
The government has understandably sought to bring more offences to justice by attempting to increase the number of suspected offences that result in an individual being cautioned, convicted or otherwise sanctioned – known as ‘narrowing the justice gap’. The government comfortably met its targets with more than 1.25 million offences brought to justice well ahead of the 2007-2008 deadline. However, success has not been as a result of increases in successful convictions, but through increased cautions, penalty notices for disorder and formal warnings for cannabis possession. As a proportion of the total number of offences brought to justice, successful convictions have actually fallen, from 69 per cent in 2003 to 49 per cent in 2007. What’s more, overall, and despite the drive to narrow the justice gap, there are only three convictions for every 100 estimated crimes.
Attempts to tackle stubbornly high reconviction levels by prisoners and offenders completing community programmes have also failed. This is perhaps one of Labour’s most conspicuous criminal justice failures. There has been substantial extra investment in prison regimes but two-thirds of prisoners are reconvicted within two years of release from custody and for certain offences it is even higher – eight out of 10 burglars are reconvicted after leaving prison. There has been some recent progress in reducing reconviction rates for offenders completing community sentences but around six out of 10 still go on to commit further crimes. For children, reconviction rates remain even higher. Despite attempts to improve custodial regimes, eight out of 10 offend once returning to the community.
One of the key challenges facing the government will be addressing the high numbers of children in custody – which is among the highest in Europe – and addressing increasing public concern about youth crime. In 1997 it was Labour’s key criminal justice priority to address the emergence of what was described as an ‘excuse culture’ for children who offend. A root and branch reform led to the creation of locally-managed Youth Offending Teams monitored by a Youth Justice Board.
Despite attempts to provide a more effective coordinated response for children in the youth justice system, many still fail to access mental health support, substance misuse services or stay in full-time education. Levels of self-reported youth crime, widely considered to be the most accurate available measure, have not declined since 1997 – around a quarter of children continue to report committing at least one offence in the previous 12 months. Levels of reported knife carrying and knife use among children in some inner-city areas are worryingly high and so-called youth ‘gangs’ are considered by police in those cities to be a major concern.
As the economy enters more turbulent waters and public spending is reined in, the criminal justice agencies will inevitably have less cash to deal with potentially more crime, which historically has risen during periods of economic recession. The police, increasingly stretched having to deal with terrorism, cross-border criminality as well as neighbourhood nuisances, will continue to feel under pressure. The reality is that the criminal justice system will only be able to have a limited impact on public safety. The biggest challenge for the government will be recognising that preventing crime will require more sophisticated cross-departmental responses rooted in socio-economic policies.
Ed Balls in the Department for Children, Schools and Families has realised that tackling anti-social behaviour can be done more effectively through looking at youth inclusion and is sensibly taking forward a youth action plan. Across government there needs to be a more honest acknowledgement of what can and can’t be delivered by the police, courts, probation, youth offending teams and prison service.
Instead of embarking on yet more reform in the hope of making the criminal justice system more efficient, a wider crime prevention agenda should be embedded in all government ministries. If not, 10 years hence the government will be faced with managing increasing numbers being processed by an overburdened criminal justice system at a great economic and social cost to us all.