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Criminals on probation commit a murder a week

by generaldecay | July 31, 2009 at 11:56 am

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Criminals under the care of the probation service have committed almost a murder a week over the past two years, according to figures today. Offenders under supervision have been convicted of more than a thousand serious further crimes, including almost one hundred murders.

Well, this is concerning. The criminal justice system in the UK certainly needs some work in terms of its impact on rates of reoffending (which are still relatively high) but I did not realise that the situation was quite so dire. Of course, one must interpret these findings in context: it reads a little like every offender on probation commits a murder a week which is not the case at all. Collectively, the figures suggest that offenders on probation commit further serious offences (including one murder per week) while on probation.

The figures show that there were 1,034 convictions for serious further offences committed between 2007 and 2009. The total includes 94 murder convictions, 105 rapes, 43 arson attacks, 57 kidnaps and 762 other serious violent or sex crimes for which the maximum sentence is 10 years or more. However, year on year, the number of such convictions in England and Wales has fallen. Convictions fell from 672 in 2007-8 to 362 in 2008-2009 including murders down from 66 to 28, rapes down from 62 to 43 and arson attacks from 32 to 11.

I am very much in favour of the rehabilitation of offenders but rehabilitation programmes are often not sytematically administered to offenders either in prison or serving probation sentences in the community. That, in my opinion is the root of the issue; it's rather more a systemic failure, rather than an individual one.

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Amy Judd

at 12:43 on July 31st, 2009

Wow, a murder a week!

generaldecay

at 01:56 on August 1st, 2009

Thanks Amy and indeed. I did question the figure (because we certainly don't hear about them all) but that's what the figures state...

Paschen

at 19:43 on July 31st, 2009

That is rather High, question though, What is the percentage of all Probation's, since that would back into perspective and reality.

If the it is more then 1% the program would need some amendments, if it is over 5% we would need some serious restructuring and should it be over 10%, we may have to put in serious safe guards.

Over that we should cancel the program temporarily.

Under 1 to 2 percent the program is still working well for the most part. and needs minor changes.

generaldecay

at 01:46 on August 1st, 2009

Well, I think it's a little more complicated than a 1%, 2%, 5%, 10% cut off point. Not least because there are a variety of probation programmes, which target different aspects of offending behaviour. Some work better than others, some need improvement, some probably need to be scrapped etc. There is also the question of an viable alternative to probation, which we have yet to find. Yes, the probation service (and the youth offending service) in the UK are not reducing reoffending enough (although how to measure 'enough' is a whole other debate) and we're still figuring out what to do about that.