The Implications for the Justice System of the English Riots - Research Paper Example

The implications for the justice system of the English riots Introduction Criminal Justice is concerned with sentencing the culprits or criminals to prisons which grants justice to victims and helps in preventing further crime. The subject forms a part of social science studies (Yar, n.d). Criminal behavior of young people has been revealed in the 2011 England riots where people came out in the streets to protest and violence broke out everywhere. The protesting people were simply victims of poverty and they expressed their anger against the growing inequality in Britain. Throughout England it caused disruptions in work and created immense disturbances. Although common people have shown sympathy for the protestors the justice system of the Nation has appealed for their punishment. More than 3000 people were convicted and five people lost their lives during riots(Smith, 2011). The activities of rioters during the 2011 England riots should be termed as a criminal offence and intolerable even if the administrative system of Britain is responsible for evoking such riots in 2011. The paper intends to discuss this issue and identify the implications of criminal justice system during the England riots of 2011. Public media has brought the England riot of 2011 under the limelight. It was not just a riot but also an incident which experienced occurrence of multiple events simultaneously. The explanation provided for such a riot was self protection. The riot has witnessed a transformation of the British culture when common man rioted and looted on the streets of England (Smith, 2011). Brief overview of the England Riots 2011 The riots that took place in the streets of England during the summer of 2011 were a result of the growing anger and frustration of ordinary people against the British government. They were deeply annoyed by the governmental activities that had led to widespread poverty and inequality. It revealed the inability of the police to tackle such a riot situation. They lost control and appeared helpless in front of the rioters. Reports indicate that the police had underestimated the magnitude of the crisis. With police gunning down a suspected gangster Michael Duggan riots extended to London as well as Tottenham on 6th of August. The riot situation had brought under coverage other English cities like Liverpool,Manchester and Birmingham.Such a riot situation was solely a display of people’s anger against the police after the shooting incident (Slack, 2011). Review reports of riots it is said that police should have used plastic bullets and water canon to bring the situation under control. News reports published says that police should have used stuffs like water cannon and plastic bullets to bring the riot situation under control.Moreover the force deployed was insufficient to deal with the riot situation. The rioters were more in number than the force. Numbers of arrests under such circumstances were also considered not enough to control the situation. The riots caused a damage of £300 million. More than 2500 business houses were hampered during the riots. The rioters also broke approximately 231 houses (Travis, 2011). The main reason of evoking the riot was that he police had shot down a man called Michael Duggan whom they claimed to be a gangster. The riot culminated more into an anti police movement. The lack of sympathy from the police that got revealed in the shootout acted as a driving factor for spreading of riots. Under such circumstances in the course of riots some rioters got opportunities for looting unaffordable luxury goods and they utilized it thoroughly. However racial discrimination was not noticed in the course of riots (Lewis, Newburn, Taylor and Ball, 2011). Role of gangs in England riots of 2011 Majority of the rioters were found to be males. But only a small percent of the arrested people belonged to gangs. Most of the arrested ones were not professional criminals (Smith, 2011). But those involved had not left any space unturned for looting and causing violent acts. The gangs looked upon this riot as an economic opportunity which they totally utilized. They even left out some hostilities in order to capitalize on this. But no such major role had been played by the gangs in the riots. Their name was simply used by the political classes to put the blame upon and save themselves (Newburn, Topping, Ferguson and Taylor, 2011). The gangs during the riot situation had undertaken some planned robberies especially in sportswear and electronics stores. They were also involved in some other thefts. But their activities are not relevant enough to grab lots of attention. Clearly politicians have overplayed the role of gangs in the England riots of 2011 (Smith, 2011). Planners and Policymakers behind the riots The main cause of the riot has been attributed to the anti police factor but it was also the policy makers and planners of Britain who made a major contribution in causing such riot situation. Coincidentally even the European nations of Greece, Italy had experienced such riots and protests by youths owing to more or less the same reason- protest against administrative system. However for these European nations the protest was a more violent one. The growing frustration against the political classes has erupted into the riot situation. Ordinary people complained and severely protested against the growing inequality in the economy that is making them poorer and poorer. The youths realized that the prosperity of the richer classes was mainly due to some illegal and unauthorized practices which were not being prevented. The policy makers were simply unable to provide an explanation for the growing fury of the people and the riots where protests were mostly led by youths and even children (Martin, n.d). They have mostly blamed the gangs and robberies for initiating the riots. But only 13% constituted the gang members out of the arrested rioters. Others were all young people and even many school children. The fact was that lack of good policing had culminated into the riots. Such youth violence was significantly tackled in Glasgow (Lewis, 2011). The England riots of 2011 were undoubtedly more of a political protest where people protested against decreases in government spending and government welfare activities. They complained vigorously about the growing inequality in the economy which they viewed as injustice. The police were unable to stop the rioters from spreading riots and perform looting. But at the same time they harassed the innocent people by stopping and searching them each time they came out in the streets. Looting was an opportunistic phenomenon when the youths were simply lured by the luxury items which they could never afford. In terms of the explanations of less provision of public goods for the ordinary consumers and steady decline in their standard of living through widespread inequality sympathy has been expressed for them (Bagehot, 2011). Most of the rioters arrested were unemployed. They had lost their jobs. Many were illiterate and uneducated. Furious against faulty public policies and policy makers, people had forgotten the distinction between right and wrong doings. The anger of those unemployed people was expressed against the British government during the summer riots of England in 2011. In fact the faulty policies of the British government have produced a group of illiterate youths who lacked moral sense and looted the city of England in the summer of 2011 (Hastings, 2011). Involvement of the criminal justice system and its implications in the 2011 riots of England Those arrested facing the charge of riots and looting during the riots of England in 2011 were mostly young people. Post riots there were 60 arrivals in a week at the Feltham prison. The number equals to total monthly arrests. The young rioters with no previous criminal records were attacked by prison inmates after being arrested.Youth prisons became overcrowded and prisoners were transferred to other prisons so that further arrests could be accommodated in Feltham prison. Feltham jail during 2011 England riots had to accommodate more than 1000 prisoners. The large number of attacks had also been initiating the gang culture within prisons. Prisoners were agitated on watching their own houses under attacks during the riot situation (Travis, 2011). The failure of courts in indentifying those who were too young to be imprisoned endangered their safety. Such imprisonments also raised the probability that their future or adults lives would be hurt. The children’s Commissioner had appealed to court to recognize the ones who are below age for imprisonment. The criminals accused for killing James Bugler were considered to be too young and hence were not eligible for facing murder trial. At the same time United Nations also appealed to the court to consider the issue of protecting children. The law system of the nation was asked to extend child laws concerned with equality. United Nations have also insisted British government to act upon the law of child poverty. In 2011 the country of Great Britain had a record of highest number of children sent to jail owing to the riots. This raised further criticisms against the British government saying that they were unable to reduce the incidence of child poverty (Neild, 2011). The Justice secretary Kenneth Clarke has asked for penal reforms within the British law system so as to make up for its inability to drive a group of young people above 18 to a normal and healthy life. Although the British government has ordered for strict punishment of the rioters, it was not consider sufficient to rehabilitate them and make them good citizens. More new and effective laws were definitely needed for such a case. The government was asked to give considerable attention to social deficits prevailing besides the economic deficits. A post riot mission was suggested for the British justice system. The criminal justice system needs to adopt such laws and give sentences that would help to make these convicted teenagers and children better and responsible citizens in the future (Lewis, Taylor and Ball, 2011). The areas that suffered from riots included those economically deprived ones. Even unexpected areas like Croydon had suffered from riot attacks. This phenomenon has been attributed to British administrative and justice system where people living with growing inequality have lost trust on the government. The deprived classes living in unequal societies have more number of imprisonments during the riot situation. This feature is also noticeable in USA and Canada (The riots of summer 2011-How did we come to this? 2011). There have been reports that the young people arrested during 2011 England riots were convicted with very strict sentences. More than 1715 people were jailed during the course of riots. The average imprisonment given was for 11 months. But the shocking sentence was that 25 percent of the accused had ten or more convictions. The individuals accused were mostly males whose average age was less than 21 years (Gye, 2011). Post riots the government is scrutinizing the criminal records regime and is planning for strategic actions that would help to strike a balance between respect of civil liberties and public protection. The Homicide Review Advisory Group is now planning upon those measures that will help to prevent crime in future. They are planning to discard life sentence for murder which has been prevailing in England. The nation justice system is also planning a lot of reforms in the area of youth justice (Policy Watch, 2011). Post crisis the British government is also keeping an eye on giving better training to police officers so that they could respond better to public disorder. The government had already spent a huge sum of £89.827 million for policing the disorder caused by the England riots of 2011. As per the riot damage Act of 1886 the administrative system will pay a considerable sum of money to compensate for the damages caused by the riots (Policing Large Scale Disorder: Lessons from the disturbances of August 2011, 2011). Critical Review of the criminal justice system during 2011 riots Crime has always been an outcome of joblessness and less or no education. Low availability of work has always resulted in more of illegal works. A social theory even says that excess of leisure has more often paved way for criminal activities. Although crime rates had fallen during 2010, unemployment was never thought of as a reason for low incidence of crime (Wilson, 2011). However the severe economic frustration of the deprived people was proved during the 2011 England riots which had resulted solely due to high unemployment, growing poverty and inequality. The English Judicial System can be criticized for being very much strict upon the rioters who happened to be mostly young people and even children. A large number of arrests were made post riots which can be rendered unnecessary. For instance a 23 year boy was arrested from the streets of England. He committed the crime of stealing a mineral water bottle during riots for which he was sent to prison for six months. In this way the justice system punished a local youth for damaging or stealing £3.50 out of the nation’s wealth. At the same time the UK banking system which caused billions of damage to the nation’s wealth by engaging in speculative activities and extending risks were left totally unpunished. This clearly highlights the discrimination and unequal justice that exists in the nation’s criminal justice system (Slater, 2011). Reports have revealed that majority of those are charged with minor offences and still they are being imprisoned and then sent to higher courts for more strict punishments. More than 1000 such cases have found out which are lying in the court. The convicted ones have no severe cases of violence or burglary charges against them (Rogers and Evans, 2011). Sentencing was considered to be much stricter for those convicted during riots than what is usually given to these offences under normal circumstances. Even young people with no previous criminal records or arrests were given long term imprisonments. For instance it was seen that a young who was never even seen roaming beside police station was taken into custody for 18 months as he surrendered during the riot situation. Many more sentencing of this type had spoiled the future of the young boys. Some of them had top graded students (Bawdon, 2011). Such an injustice in the name of criminal offence is severely criticized. Although violence is never tolerable the courts could have shown a little sympathy to these young boys being aware of their age and the circumstances under which the riots occurred. It was believed that children were given harsh punishments and strict sentences as they were either a ten tear old or a teenager who was involved in the crisis. It was argued that children of this age are unaware of what is right or wrong. This argument can be considered as no longer applicable and cannot be accepted with logical sense under the criminal justice system. In the era of globalization where primary education starts at the age of five none of the teenagers or even younger children can be expected to be unaware of wrong doings. If the convicted child has normal developments he is then fully aware of the moralities and wrong doings (Hungerford- Welch, 2004). Under such circumstances it may be accepted that the activities performed by the child during riots was done under fully conscious and thus he may be found guilty. In such a sense the actions of the criminal justice system and the court during 2011 riots of England are found to be justified. Common innocent people have also been harassed a great deal during the 2011 riots of England. All almost everyone has been stopped and checked during riots. This harassment is not tolerable at any cost and the courts and justice system should have taken some action against such injustice and unnecessary trouble to the English citizens. However post riots the home secretary has asked to conduct a review of this stop and search issue (Ball and Taylor, 2011). Conclusion The England riot of 2011 was an event where ordinary people protested against the growing inequality that was making them poorer and poorer. Although political classes have blamed gangsters for initiating such riots, the participants were found to be mostly local male teenagers and children. The faulty public policies have the major causes for the growing economic frustration of the people that resulted in riots. The criminal justice system has also been criticized of showing discriminations and unequal justice. Riot sentencing also has much stricter for these same offences than what is usually given. They have been accused of being stricter to youngsters and children involved in the riots. The large number of arrests was also rendered unnecessary and endangered safety of children. However evidences are also there that the court although accused has acted as per laws with respect to giving punishments and strict sentences. References: 1. Bagehot, (December 6, 2011). 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The British Society of Criminology Publications, BSC, http://www.britsoccrim.org/publications.htm (Accessed on December 21 2011) Read More