Our Criminal Justice System - It's Criminal! Part 4

Rewarding Crime: Rather than persuading people not to commit crime, through lack of consequence, we are literally rewarding crime in some areas. If criminals know they can get away with anything from hundreds to thousands of pounds using a variety of different mechanisms and ruses, and the law will not act, they will do it again and again! This can go on for years until one day they will over step the mark considerably and the law will come crashing down on them. In the time it takes for all this to come about, many people will have been left victim to what could and should have been dealt with a long time ago. Because it gets left as late as it does, as well as the additional victims left in the criminal's trail, it has also resulted in a wasted life for the criminal, because now it has gone far beyond such a simple and expedient remedial option and there is no turning back. If not properly and appropriately dealt with at the right time with education or a short sharp memorable shock, criminality can become ingrained behaviour. All the more damaging and all the more difficult to deal with!

Stroll In The Prison: By the time career criminals eventually do get locked up they’ve already cost society significantly, both financially and with the problems they cause. Sentences are often far too lenient, compared to the heartache they cause, and while they’re inside they get well looked after. It is not uncommon for villains to spend a third of their lives in jail, having to be looked after and not having to work. Life in our jails is a relative stroll compared to some. Currently criminals in the UK get more looking after, pandering and benefits than many decent people in society. How can this be? After all, they're the criminals. It costs a lot of money to keep them in prison comfort, feed them and house them. Cost to their victims and criminal damage aside, by the time the police catch them and get them to court, they've already cost us significantly. Focus Prisoner Education (fpe.org.uk) currently reports on its website that it costs £65,000 to get a criminal to prison and £40,000 for every year they spend inside. That is a huge amount of money. Why, therefore, are we not doing more to try and prevent this and why are they not earning their keep? When ordinary decent people are living in real hardship and are being squeezed until they burst, prisoners should not be taking it easy, sitting on their backsides and enjoying the benefits of numerous recreational activities and three meals a day. Everyone else has to work or starve and it should be the same for criminals. Anything less is a crime. After all, I reiterate, they're the criminals! And who says crime doesn't pay! Well, it certainly costs!

Whose Responsibility Is Crime? When it comes to prosecuting people for crimes such as fraud and criminal damage, it was explained to me by the police that there is more chance of achieving a conviction if perpetrators are taken to a small claim's hearing. That basically means the law is impotent or can’t be bothered. But interestingly I was told that this is because the requirement for absolute proof is not so great and the hearing would be decided, given the evidence presented, more on the balance of probability, as with Judge Judy or Judge Rinder. So why, in some instances, can the state not exercise this protocol and why does the onus of responsibility for trying to right the wrongs in society now suddenly fall on the individual, usually the victim, with no real help from the criminal justice system? After all, we're not paid to do this job, the criminal justice system is! In fact small claims are usually just about a financial settlement and do nothing to punish an actual crime. It seems to me that the law does not currently understand or properly acknowledge that fraud is a crime. I say again, fraud is theft and it is as deliberate and purposeful, therefore the law needs to take it seriously as a criminal act. If someone obtains money or goods through deceit they should be arrested and dealt with as a thief, because that’s what they are! The law must start to take some responsibility for properly addressing and dealing with this. Such criminals should be targeted and it should not just be left to victims to deal with it while the criminal justice system sits on its collective backside and lets criminals walk away, laughing all the way to their next crime and their next victim!