Tough on crime?

Tony Blair used to recite his mantra, "Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime."

The second part has been a complete disaster and a non-fulfillment. They have passed thousands of new laws, - a truly legal diarrhea, as I mentioned recently, which has done nothing to deal with the causes of crime. The society is broken, with many dysfunctional families and behaviour problems at school, which suggests that little has been done to deal with the causes. Apart from bleating about inequality, the government seems to have done nothing of the scale or depth of the work of Ian Duncan-Smith.

The failure was emphasized in the figures published this week, that four in ten of people arrested for serious offences are not prosecuted, but merely given a caution. According to the Daily Telegraph yesterday, in some police force areas the figure could exceed half. The number of cautions given for violent offences has risen by 82 per cent in five years.

I am aware that cautions could count against offenders in the case of further offending, - apparently it is left to police discretion as to whether or not the offence is recorded on the Police National Computer. If it is not so recorded, then the offender has no criminal record!

Why is this happening? Is it because the police lack confidence in the CPS, - there have been some notorious cases where police felt they had a good case but the Prosecution Service decided not to prosecute? Is it because of police lethargy, - it takes so much less time and energy to proceed with a prosecution? Is it because available police time is limited because of all the other demands on police time? (We know what they are, - form filling, health and safety appraisals, etc.?)

What message is sent out to the public, who are already struggling to get the police interested in turning out to investigate? What message is sent to the would-be criminal community? What message does this send to victims, who are already deterred from reporting crimes, unless there is an insurance claim and they need a police crime number?