2.vast Focus On The Offender Ignores The Social Context Of Crime Not Only Is

2.Vast focus on the offender ignores the social context of crime
Not only is it clear that dangerous crimes need not be exclusively of the violent and sexual nature, but the focus of 'dangerousness' is wrong in that it draws attention to the criminal and the crime as opposed to the social problem that generated the criminal behaviour. As shown via illustration of the problem associated with the classification of 'dangerous' crimes, there are many social contexts that are capable of creating certain criminal activity. A mere focus on the offender does nothing to hit hard at the root of the problem and the criminal justice system simply continues to imprison and punish offenders from the breeding grounds of, on the one hand, deprived and poverty stricken areas, and on the other, hand, corrupt administrative institutions. Dangerousness therefore not only ignores problems in society, but in doing so, it misses out on the wide variety of types of criminal activity that can be generated across the spectrum of social environments.
3.Counter arguments
It must however be remembered that there are other forms of supervisory mechanisms in place for the future prevention of non-violent and dangerous crimes such as embezzlement. These include the striking off of Directors from the board of directors following criminal activity. Furthermore, in relation to the targeting of social problems associated with specific areas of the country, John Prescott is currently heading one of the most comprehensive and widespread re-generation programs in UK history.
Conclusion
Dangerousness, as a legal concept, has extremely limited scope and the MAPPA model is merely a Human Rights friendly method of supervision that has utilised the word dangerous to describe violent and sex offenders. While the dangerousness concept has the potential to go far further than this small window of crimes, it is as a result of the complexities inherent in dealing with various crimes and their diverse social backgrounds that dangerousness cannot become a single operation within the criminal justice system. Instead, its usefulness is merely that of a non-legal but linguistic adjective to different crimes that require diverse preventative measures.
Bibliography
Legislation
Sexual Offences Act 2003
Criminal Justice Act 2003
Terrorism Act 2000
Human Rights Act 1998 (European Convention of Human Rights)
Case Law
R v Sutcliffe, The Times, 23 May 1981
Textbook Publications
J Floud and W Young, Dangerousness and Criminal Justice, (Cambridge Studies in Criminology XLVII, 1981)
A Ashworth, Principles of Criminal Law, (Oxford University Press, 4th edition, 2003)
A Sanders and R Young, Criminal Justice, (Butterworths, 2nd edition, 2000)
Web Resources
The Labour party: www.labour.org.uk/jpbattlebus
The Home Office:www.probation.homeoffice.gov.