The rule of law in the UK is going down the toilet these days, isn’t it?

Yep, crime is rocketing-up, in conjunction with offenders being charged dropping like a stone, and the biggest surprise about all that, is that it is happening before our very eyes, under no-less than a ‘Conservative’ Government – the supposed bastion of Law and Oder? This is just another fine mess that lies at the door unfortunately of our beleaguered current Prime Minister Theresa May, wouldn’t you say?

Oh yes, she will doubtless blame others (and there are others), but while we citizens can only recount, or only remember, that it was indeed she that spent 6 years at the Home Office and now 2 years in Number 10, while this was all coming to pass, eh?

Crime, as we all know, is an unlawful offence committed by an individual (or individuals), or group, or company, or organisation.

Punishment, on the other hand, is society’s response to a crime that has been committed and is ‘intended’ to melt-out an appropriately unpleasant outcome for the criminal, and the purposes of that are five-fold – incapacitation, retribution, deterrence, plus restitution and rehabilitation.

Those two elements are at the base of the British criminal justice system, and to make it all work in practice, requires a great deal of effort and resources [not least, commitment and money].

As far as crime goes, it first must be detected (and recorded), second it has to be investigated (properly), and third the perpetrator(s) must be identified through evidence (legally obtained).

That done, it comes down to punishment, and that starts with laying charges (based on the evidence), followed by preventing further crime being committed by restraining the charged (by some mechanism), then putting the accused in front of a Court of Law (appropriate to the alleged offence), next sentencing of the guilty (in accordance with the prevailing statutes), and finally the carrying out of the judge’s sentence (to achieve justice).

Well, the whole system is falling apart at the seams, as current figures show? But that is not the whole story, is it? No, because below the surface of those appalling figures, lay some disturbing matters that have greatly contributed to this resulting out-of-control situation.

Most of the underlying trouble here, it has to be said, emanates from the do-gooder’ brigade – and over many decades to boot. There can be no doubt the historically justice system in Britain was just as brutal as elsewhere else in the world – but it was no worse though.

Certainly, as our society became more stable, more community orientated, and certainly more civilized, there was a great need to reform all elements of the justice system.

However, here we are in 2018 and instead of doing just that, we ‘have thrown the baby out with the bathwater’, as the saying goes.

The do-gooders have succeeded in watering down everything to do with the justice system, and that would be include the whole thing starting from crime detection, through to punishment which has now become a dirty word.

Furthermore, criminals are now for some incomprehensible reason regularly deemed to be more ‘victim’ than ‘evil’ so accordingly are treated with kid gloves after they commit offences, and if not that, then they mustn’t be upset as that would breach their human rights.

Across all parts of the UK, there are large pockets of individuals, who don’t work, never have worked, will never work, who will forever live off welfare, and will unless stopped in their tracks, continue to supplement that free income by committing crime. They have no respect for anything, nor anybody else, nor their society and without question certainly no respect whatsoever for the Police, the Courts, the Prisons, and the Law itself.

We need to shake criminal classes out of inherent belief they will get away with it, don’t we?

A major contributing factor to all of it, is that the levers of justice have been badly tampered with, and unless they are restored to working order, we are heading full-tilt towards chaos and a lawless society, which will make the Wild West look like a picnic.

The unsavoury facts of it are glaring us all in the face, aren’t they?

Well, in England and Wales, though many may not be directly experiencing it themselves, the country has seen the first sustained increase in crime for 15 years, and its largest annual rise in a decade. Nearly five million crimes were recorded by the police in the last year – 458,021 more than the previous year:

• crime levels of the most serious violence are rising – up by 18%,
• use of weapons in crime is mounting
• murder (up 12%) and manslaughter have been rising year-on-year since 2014 [a total of 723 homicides in the past year]
• there is now a spike in the old-style crimes of burglary and car theft [despite it being in long-term decline for around 20 years]
• knife crime numbers soaring to 40,000 last year
• robbery (up 30%)
• sex offences have increased by 14%.
• the total number of crimes reported to and recorded by the police rose by 10% between April 2016 and March 2017 to almost 5,000,000
• only 9% of crimes result in someone getting charged and only I in ten of them see court, and conviction rate?

The liberal fighters against effective punishment of the criminal have brought about a situation whereby the police’s hands are tied, as are the courts and indeed the jails or the probation service.

Whereas incapacitation [stopping the criminal from further offending], would be seen by the general public as an essential priority, they are instead out on our streets ready for business, when let-off, cautioned, bailed, escape justice, not jailed at all, or only serve half their due prison sentence if they are.

As for retribution [intended to make the criminal suffer in return], criminals are increasingly given just community service, although they no longer fear jail anyway, because it’s become just ‘a walk in the park’ and not a humbling experience to be avoided.

Although deterrence [prevent criminality through fear of punishment (the severity, the certainty, and the swiftness of it)], is crucial to halt crimes including major ones, it no longer is a fear factor in the UK.

There is never any hope of restitution (a criminal providing compensating for crimes) not least because the courts hardly even consider it.

Then, when it comes to rehabilitation (re-education of a criminal to give-up criminality) it is a busted flush, and indeed a false dawn in the UK – the convicted see no reason whatsoever to give-up a life of crime, do they?

The UK has done away with threat of the death penalty, so not only is murder not deterred by it, but at trial ALL the murderers plead ‘not guilty’ (nothing to lose, you see?), and moreover they are allowed out of prison after a part-served sentence, while still withholding information about the disposal of, or whereabouts of a hidden body. In America where it is retained (but rarely carried-out) that results in their murderers pleading ‘guilty’ at court to avoid it, as well as cooperating in finding hidden bodies – what would our suffering British families with someone murdered would give, for that outcome, do you think?

Then, there is of course the punishment spoilers’ successful curtailment of “stop-and-search”, which has as a direct consequence resulted in gangs and individuals incessantly carrying blades – as the statistics show, multiple preventable stabbing murders have been caused.

The annoying thing is, you see, that there was sheer ignorance behind the campaign against ‘stop-and-search”, because the policy wasn’t just about ‘finding weapons‘, it was equally about ‘deterring’ the carrying of them, and it was effective on both counts – not finding a weapon was just as important finding one.

The justice system has been starved of cash, resources and support, so its hardly any wonder that it is not fit for purpose, is it? Or that the police have lost control of the streets, crime gangs bound, crimes aren’t investigated, valuables theft is ignored, supposedly low-level crime (like shoplifting) isn’t prosecuted, criminals operate and escape across county boundaries, and crimes are committed often by those just out to prove to their associates that they can do it?

[Still feel safe in your home, your street, your village, your city, your county, your country, knowing that the numbers of police protecting us all, is down to its lowest level for over 30 years (just 123,142 officers across all ranks in England and Wales)?]