The Justice System Case Study

In history, crimes have been dealt with by the justice system according to its severity as well as the offender: if the crime committed was not very serious and the offender was deemed “non-delinquent”, or “free of any real criminal disposition”, they would be cautioned or fined. However, were the crime a more serious one and the offender appeared to have a “criminal character”, they would receive more severe and more deterrent punishment (Garland, 2001: 42).

In more recent years, numbers of the UK prison population have been on the rise – less serious crimes have been more severely punished - whereas the number of financial penalties issued to offenders have been falling (Cavadino & Dignan, 2013). In 1975, approximately 40.000 people were imprisoned, that number has risen to 83.842 in 2013 (Berman & Dar, 2013). The prison population more than doubled in that time, whereas the overall population merely grew with 14% (World Bank, n.d.), thus, the relative growth of the prison population is significantly disproportional.

In 2009, that number had declined to 71.9% (Sentencing Statistics, 2009). A probable cause for the increase in prison population and decline of the amount of fines issued could be the government’s increased strictness. Since the late ‘90s it has been their aim to be “tougher on crime, and tougher on the causes of crime”. Ever since, and particularly since the events of 9/11 and events such as the bombing of the London Underground in 2005, the British government has become increasingly punitive (Cavadino & Dignan,