Recipe to Reduce Crime

Simple recipe for improving Criminal Justice in the UK :

1. Improve the efficiency and effectiveness of policing. In practical terms, this means focusing on the three core functions of the police and ruthlessly eliminating any non-core activity. What are the core functions of the police ?

• Civilise the streets
• Reduce actual levels of real crime 
• Reduce number of deaths and serious injuries on the roads

And yes, this does mean that lots of eye-catching initiatives will have to be dropped. Sorry about that.

2. Improve the effectiveness of the CPS. I would suggest experimenting with giving one or two police forces the budget and letting them organise their own legal teams. If nothing else, this should make the CPS fear for its future and begin to pay attention.

3. Significantly increase our 'punishment capacity', including prison capacity. An overcrowded prison system feeds back into the entire criminal justice system, creating a vicious cycle in which criminal behaviour goes unpunished, leading to increased criminality, which further clogs up the capacity of all agencies to respond. We need to shift into a virtuous cycle, in which criminal behaviour is punished decisively, discouraging further criminal behaviour and leading to reductions in criminal behaviour.

Do it right and our prison population will begin to fall, because would-be criminals are getting the message. Do it wrong (as at present), and we have the barmy situation of having to let prisoners out early, en masse, simply to reduce the queue of criminals waiting to come in.

4. Sort out sentencing. Crimes of acquisition need to cost the criminal vastly more than he can 'earn' from crime. 'Cost' may be in time served, fines imposed and/or other penalties. It's a simple enough equation.

5. Strip the assets of any convicted criminal unless he can show legitimate (ie known to the Inland Revenue) sources of income.

6. Enforce the law on serving alcohol to people who are already intoxicated. Will reduce a large proportion of weekend violence and thereby free up personnel.

7. Stop negotiating with criminals. We have developed a 'plea bargaining' culture throughout our CJS. It's time to recognise that the purpose of the system is to impose decent standards on everybody – we should not be embarrassed about enforcing the law. Crucially, we need to change the relationship between those who would commit crimes and the rest of society - we have to make it more appealing for people to toe the line.

Can all of the above be achieved? Yes – easily. It's important to note, however, that proposals to bring in elected police commissioners will fail unless the incoming government tackles the whole criminal justice system as a system – fixing one element in isolation will be ineffective.