Criminal Justice Policy

The criminal justice policy I have chosen to talk about is the 2010 – 2015 government policy: reoffending and rehabilitation. I will be analysing the government which was in power when this policy was set out and will also be looking at the impact the policy had on our society. The government’s main aim when looking at policies is to make sure our communities feel safe and secure, policies can both make a change and have a huge effect on our society. I will be exploring the outcomes and limitations of the legislation, also looking at theoretical concepts throughout.
The reoffending and rehabilitation policy was implemented under the coalition government. The coalition was made up of two parties; the Conservative and the Liberal Democrats.
The Liberal Democrats stated that they wanted more community sentences and a bigger focus on anti-terrorist control orders, whereas the Conservatives mainly looked at the problems in society and how fixing those would reduce crime. They called this Britain’s “broken society” and explain how in strengthening families and encouraging more of the same shared norms and values we can then prevent crime. After the general election the parties came to an agreement to form a coalition. This meant that the norms and values of each party would be mixed. On May 12th 2010, the coalition formed and David Cameron was the new Priminister with Nick Clegg as his Deputy leader (Davies 2015).
The reoffending and rehabilitation policy comes from the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice. The main role of the Home Office is to determine which reforms of criminal law will give the best direction for criminal justice policy. In 2007, the Home Office was given over to the Ministry of Justice which states in their main aims and responsibilities that probation, rehabilitation
The previous Labour government had set out many reforms to attempt to split the link between drugs and crime through many crime reduction strategies. The Labour party were very passionate about victim support and neighbourhood policing and watches, also focusing a lot on antisocial behaviour. The Coalitions drug strategies are quite different, they aimed to ban legal highs and explore alternative solutions to prevent drug misuse, many of which are found in the reoffending and rehabilitation policy (Duke 2012). This can be linked into routine activity theory. Relating back to the conservative parties views and beliefs on crime they stated that in order to prevent and deter crime we need to strengthen families and communities. This links into routine activity theory spoken about by sociologists Cohen and Felson, they talk about how poverty, unemployment and inequality can play a big part in acts of crime and deviance. The theory mentions that it takes more than just an individual that wants to commit a crime to make crime happen, they also need an opportunity. This could be in communities with a high risk of crime and gang related incidents. These communities can also be referred to as “broken windows”, the idea that if a community is already prone to crime then more crime will follow. The conservative government therefore proposes that we remove the opportunity for