Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
or between the police and other agencies, especially the rehabilitation arms of
various welfare agencies. This led to rivalry and limited sharing of information
between neighbouring police forces or with other agencies, reducing the oppor-
tunity to identify potential offenders and to prevent crime, especially from repeat
offenders or those that moved to other areas. Finally, as noted above, that there
have been many examples in democratic countries where police have been shown
to have used excessive violence or have covered up their own misdemeanours or
even crimes, which has led to decreasing trust in the police force. In most western
and industrialized countries there have been greater attempts to ensure these prob-
lems are eradicated through better training, supervision and independent reviews
of problems. However, it seems to be an unfortunate fact that in most many states
of the world the police are not trusted to be fair and are part of the problem of the
absence of real safety for the population.
12.3.3
Judicial System
The judicial system also varies in different countries. But whatever the system,
there has been increasing criticism of the results of the judicial system, whether
in the prosecutorial stage, the defence system or the judicial review (Turk
1969
).
Staff shortages and limited funding in most developed countries have led to longer
procedural delays in bringing a case against a person charged with crime. This
creates a large gap in time between the crime and the consequences imposed by
the court, ensuring that many people changed spend far too long in custody before
being judged, making it difficult to provide a meaningful impact between the of-
fence and the consequences, whether for the offenders or the victims. In addition,
some argue that there is too much emphasis upon the rights of the accused, and
not enough on the problems created for the victims of crime, or the provision of
protection for witnesses who are often afraid to testify given fear of retribution,
especially when criminal gangs are involved. A particular problem in the public
consciousness comes from appears to be a 'revolving door' justice system, where
some offenders are not found guilty because of technicalities in the court, or are
given too short sentences, or are released and re-offend. There has also been a great
increase in the use of mandatory sentences for crimes, especially for drug offences
in the U.S.A., rather than allowing the judges to exercise discretion in decisions,
resulting in an enormous increase in the numbers incarcerated. Yet prison often
stigmatises for life those convicted of relatively minor offences. Many, especially
first offenders, are socialised into criminal behaviour during their incarceration,
setting them on a crime life-course, instead of prison being a period in which
rehabilitation was provided.
