- Burglars will be allowed to escape without
punishment under new instructions sent to all police forces. Police have
been told they can let them off the threat of a court appearance and instead
allow them to go with a caution.
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- The same leniency will be shown to criminals
responsible for more than 60 other different offences, ranging from arson
through vandalism to sex with underage girls.
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- New rules sent to police chiefs by the
Home Office set out how seriously various crimes should be regarded, and
when offenders who admit to them should be sent home with a caution.
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- A caution counts as a criminal record
but means the offender does not face a court appearance which would be
likely to end in a fine, a community punishment or jail.
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- Some serious offences - including burglary
of a shop or office, threatening to kill, actual bodily harm, and possession
of Class A drugs such as heroin or cocaine - may now be dealt with by caution
if police decide that would be the best approach.
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- And a string of crimes including common
assault, threatening behaviour, sex with an underage girl or boy, and taking
a car without its owner's consent, should normally be dealt with by a caution,
the circular said.
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- The Home Office instruction applies to
offenders who have admitted their guilt but who have no criminal record.
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- They are also likely to be able to show
mitigating factors to lessen the seriousness of their crime.
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- The instruction to abandon court prosecutions
in more cases - even for people who admit to having carried out serious
crimes - comes in the wake of repeated attempts by ministers and senior
judges to persuade the courts to send fewer criminals to jail.
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- The crisis of overcrowding in UK prisons
has also prompted moves to let many more convicts out earlier.
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- It emerged last month that some violent
or sex offenders, given mandatory life sentences under a "two-strike"
rule, have been freed after as little as 15 months.
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- The latest move provoked condemnation
yesterday from Tories and critics of the justice system.
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- Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said:
"Yet again the Government is covertly undermining the penal system
and throwing away the trust of ordinary citizens that criminals will be
punished and punished properly.
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- "In the last few weeks we have witnessed
a serial failure of Labour to protect the citizen, with murders of innocent
people by criminals variously on early release or probation, and now we're
finding that ever more serious crimes are not being brought to court at
all."
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- Criminologist Dr David Green, of the
Civitas think-tank, said: "They appear to have given up making the
court system work and doing anything about delays and the deviousness of
defence lawyers.
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- "This is part of the wider problem
that the Home Office has an anti-prison bias. But while they regard prison
as uncivilised, they don't seem to care whether the alternatives work or
not."
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- The Home Office circular to police forces
has been sent amid a Government drive to reduce the number of cases coming
before the courts.
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- A number of crimes - notably shoplifting
- are now regularly dealt with by fixed penalty notices similar to a parking
fine.
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- A whole range of offenders who admit
traffic and more minor criminal offences will in future have their cases
"processed" by new Government bureaucracies rather than by the
courts.
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- At the same time judges and magistrates
have been bombarded with instructions from the senior judiciary to send
fewer criminals to jail.
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- Burglars and muggers should be spared
prison more often, courts have been told, and last week sentencing authorities
ordered a further "raising of the custody threshold" to keep
out of prison more offenders who would in the past have been given up to
a year in jail.
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- The new instructions to police on how
to keep criminals out of the courts altogether are given in a 'Gravity
Factor Matrix'.
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- This breaks down offences into four categories,
with the most serious rated as four and the least serious as one.
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- For criminals over 18, who admit offences
ranked at the third level of seriousness, the instruction is: "Normally
charge but a simple caution may be appropriate if first offence".
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- Officers dealing with those who admit
level two crimes are told: "Normally simple caution for a first offence
but a charge may be appropriate if (there are) previous convictions or
appropriate to circumstances."
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- The Home Office said the guidance had
been circulated nationally because there had been regional anomalies in
the way offenders were dealt with and these needed to be removed.
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- A spokesman said: 'Cautioning in individual
cases is an operational matter for the police and Crown Prosecution Service.
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- "'The new circular firstly provides
up to date guidance on the use of cautions to encourage consistency across
the country.
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- "Secondly, with the introduction
of statutory charging, the guidance needed to clarify what the effect would
be on police responsibility for cautions. Finally the guidance was introduced
to outline the practical process of administering a caution."
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- Cautioning was used heavily in the late
1980s and early 1990s, particularly for juvenile offenders under 18.
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- Tory Home Secretary Michael Howard cracked
down on cautions in 1994 because young thugs and thieves were getting repeated
cautions but no punishment.
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- But cautioning for adult offenders is
now on the rise. Dr Green said: "The Home Office is missing its target
to achieve a set number of offenders brought to justice. But it seems they
regard a caution as an offender brought to justice.
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- "This is a nod and a wink to police
forces - deal with your cases by cautions and we will hit our target."
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- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?
in_article_id=381799&in_page_id=1770
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