Parenting Not Prison The Answer To Crime
Topline ResultsA majority of people in Britain thinks better parenting and more police on the beat would do most to reduce crime, with only 8% suggesting more offenders in prison as the answer. Better discipline in schools and more constructive activities for young people also score highly in a new survey of attitudes to crime and punishment published today.
The Rethinking Crime & Punishment survey - conducted by MORI at a time when a record number of people are imprisoned - also reveals that a majority believe that people leave prison worse than they go in.
Rethinking Crime & Punishment, a groundbreaking three-year initiative aimed at raising the level of public debate on the use of prison and other forms of punishment in the UK, is being funded by the Esmйe Fairbairn Foundation *. It is being launched at the Tower of London on Tuesday 11 December.
Baroness Linklater of Butterstone who chairs the project says: "These findings demonstrate that the public has very clear views about dealing with crime. These views are not always heard and communicated to key decision-makers. We hope that Rethinking Crime & Punishment will help to ensure that politicians, judges, the media and others who work in the criminal justice system are responsive to what the informed public really think."
Rethinking Crime & Punishment is the first comprehensive non-government initiative aimed at raising the level of debate about the use of prisons and alternative forms of punishment. It will aim to improve public understanding, spread knowledge and increase public involvement in the criminal justice system.
The Rethinking Crime & Punishment survey, conducted by MORI amongst 2,053 interviewees across Great Britain, also reveals the following:
- 53% of the public strongly/tend to agree that people come out of prison worse than they go in. Only 14% tend to/strongly disagree.
- When asked how they would spend 16310m on dealing with crime, 31% of people, the largest group, agreed that they would set up teams to work with young people most at risk of getting involved with crime as their first option. A quarter would hire more police constables and 10% would set up more CCTV cameras. Only 2% would keep more adult offenders in prison.
- Fewer than half of people (45%) feel that it's a bad idea to reduce the rising numbers of people in prison (currently at its highest level ever of 68,000). Most either think it's a good idea (39%) or don't know (17%).
Rethinking Crime & Punishment is a grant-making programme that hopes to fund a wide range of projects. Research into the appeal of imprisonment to sentencers and to the public is already underway as are initiatives to disseminate information about conditions in prison, and about alternatives to prison, and an inquiry into restorative justice. It is hoped to fund projects which increase public involvement in prisons and other parts of the criminal justice system.
RCP's Director Rob Allen says, "we want to improve the quality of debate about how to deal with offenders in the UK. By increasing public understanding and involvement, we are trying to move away from the false choices and, through the Rethinking Crime & Punishment initiative, to identify the proper role for prison and for alternatives, which can be less damaging."
Did you know?
- It costs the taxpayer approx. 16327,500 a year to keep an offender in prison, which is about 10 times more expensive than community punishments.
- Over the last five years, 50% more offenders were sent to prison despite fewer crimes being committed.
- Fewer than a third of mugging victims would choose a prison sentence for their offender.
- Over half of all ex-prisoners are re-convicted within two years of leaving prison.
* The Esmйe Fairbairn Foundation is one of the largest independent grant-making foundations in the UK and has a long history of funding projects to rehabilitate people who have committed crime, particularly those in prison.
Technical details
MORI conducted 2,053 interviews in 196 sample points across Great Britain (excluding Northern Ireland) amongst respondents aged 15+. Interviews were conducted face-to-face, in home between 22nd and 27th November 2001. Data have been weighted to reflect the national population profile.
