AC1.3: Consequences of unreported crime
Writeup
Three consequences of unreported crime that link very closely together are
decriminalisation, police prioritisation and legal change. Decriminalisation doesn’t
necessarily always lead to a law change, but it is when a certain crime or offense isn’t
targeted as closely as it may have been and becomes more deviant over criminal. An
example of this could be illegal streaming since more and more people do it in society that
the situation becomes normal, and many don’t even see it as something worth reporting.
This therefore leads to police prioritisation as the police will then put any reports of minor
crimes below and prioritise more serious and major crimes as they’ll realise something
minor will be far too hard to police i.e. cannabis; this is a positive effect of decriminalisation
as if these minor offenses become less criminal, then more time can be focused on more
major crimes and the money and resources can make bringing offenders of major crime to
justice far quicker which makes society feel safer. However, a negative consequence of
decriminalisation is that if these minor offenses become less of a crime, then this will give
criminals the confidence to move onto the more major crimes which will make them far
more frequent and thus have a larger impact on society. Decriminalisation can lead to legal
change which is when there is an actual change in the law to permanently decriminalise a
crime, an example of this could be when homosexuality was decriminalised in 1967 due to
people not really reporting it so it was seen as not a threat.
Two further consequences are cultural and procedural change; cultural change is when
crimes are a result of the sort of environment you are in, meaning, if you are living in a
rundown society then crime is likely to be very prevalent as it is seen as a norm even though
it’s illegal. This is known as the broken window theory, which states that the reason crime is
so high and rife in certain areas is because the external look of the society makes the people
living there believe that crime is just a way of life and is normalised. An example of this
would be the normalisation of drug use and prostitution in certain areas. A positive to come
out of this theory would be that these rundown cities may be noticed by higher ups and will
lead to campaigns and the cleaning up of the societies: if the societies look more clean and
safer then that will reduce the effect of the broken window theory and crime will be less
prevalent. A negative however is that people will feel very unsafe despite them thinking it’s
a norm, this mentality will also deter them from contacting the police to try and report it
because they may feel their voice won’t be heard. This can then spiral to the downfall of a
society as the crimes committed can progressively get worse and more serious. Procedural
change could also be a disadvantage to cultural change, procedural change are the ways of
reporting crime which have developed over the years to encourage people to report crimes
that may not be serious enough to dial 999 or go to a police station. This could be a
disadvantage to cultural change as those in poorer societies are more likely to get confused
over where to report the crimes to so will be deterred from doing so.
Writeup
Three consequences of unreported crime that link very closely together are
decriminalisation, police prioritisation and legal change. Decriminalisation doesn’t
necessarily always lead to a law change, but it is when a certain crime or offense isn’t
targeted as closely as it may have been and becomes more deviant over criminal. An
example of this could be illegal streaming since more and more people do it in society that
the situation becomes normal, and many don’t even see it as something worth reporting.
This therefore leads to police prioritisation as the police will then put any reports of minor
crimes below and prioritise more serious and major crimes as they’ll realise something
minor will be far too hard to police i.e. cannabis; this is a positive effect of decriminalisation
as if these minor offenses become less criminal, then more time can be focused on more
major crimes and the money and resources can make bringing offenders of major crime to
justice far quicker which makes society feel safer. However, a negative consequence of
decriminalisation is that if these minor offenses become less of a crime, then this will give
criminals the confidence to move onto the more major crimes which will make them far
more frequent and thus have a larger impact on society. Decriminalisation can lead to legal
change which is when there is an actual change in the law to permanently decriminalise a
crime, an example of this could be when homosexuality was decriminalised in 1967 due to
people not really reporting it so it was seen as not a threat.
Two further consequences are cultural and procedural change; cultural change is when
crimes are a result of the sort of environment you are in, meaning, if you are living in a
rundown society then crime is likely to be very prevalent as it is seen as a norm even though
it’s illegal. This is known as the broken window theory, which states that the reason crime is
so high and rife in certain areas is because the external look of the society makes the people
living there believe that crime is just a way of life and is normalised. An example of this
would be the normalisation of drug use and prostitution in certain areas. A positive to come
out of this theory would be that these rundown cities may be noticed by higher ups and will
lead to campaigns and the cleaning up of the societies: if the societies look more clean and
safer then that will reduce the effect of the broken window theory and crime will be less
prevalent. A negative however is that people will feel very unsafe despite them thinking it’s
a norm, this mentality will also deter them from contacting the police to try and report it
because they may feel their voice won’t be heard. This can then spiral to the downfall of a
society as the crimes committed can progressively get worse and more serious. Procedural
change could also be a disadvantage to cultural change, procedural change are the ways of
reporting crime which have developed over the years to encourage people to report crimes
that may not be serious enough to dial 999 or go to a police station. This could be a
disadvantage to cultural change as those in poorer societies are more likely to get confused
over where to report the crimes to so will be deterred from doing so.
