The Theories of Crime Underpinning The New Labour Government’s Policy Approach to Prolific and Other Priority Offenders Programme

As far as the New Labour government was concerned the main crime theories behind the Prolific and other Priority Offenders Programme were all related to the successful reduction of the number of crimes. Or to be more precise a reduction in the numerous crimes carried out by the small hardcore group of criminals responsible for carrying out around half of all reported criminal offences. As official crime figures have consistently demonstrated shown for decades that at least half of all the reported crimes are committed by only one tenth of criminals within the United Kingdom. The whole point of the Prolific and other Priority Offenders Programme being started was for the Police and other law enforcement agencies to target that most prolific group of hardcore criminals. In other words the ten per cent of criminals that actually carry out fifty per cent or more of all the reported crimes in the country taken as a whole.

The current government’s targeting of the most prolific and active criminal offenders is actually a long – standing theory of crime, which taken at face value is a basically sound strategy to reduce crime levels within the United Kingdom. The Prolific and other Priority Offenders Programme works on the old surmise that criminals who are behind bars or serving some kind of penal punishment are not actually able to commit crimes against members of the general public. The Prolific and other Priority Offenders Programme is a very large crime prevention scheme designed by the New Labour government to make the general public feel safer in their homes as well as on their streets. When prolific offenders are imprisoned efforts are made to rehabilitate, and to keep them out of trouble.

The programme in some respects also wanted help from the general public to keep released prolific offenders upon the straight and the narrow by crime awareness schemes. Under the auspices of the programme the Police advised the general public to reduce the easy opportunities for prolific offenders to commit crimes. The Police on how to look after their property as well as their personal safety gave the general public. For instance by keeping valuables hidden inside cars, or by not walking down the street with their mobile phones, purses, and wallets in full display to potential muggers as well as robbers.

The auspices of the Prolific and other Priority Offenders Programme was to reassure the general public that the New Labour government was serious in its intentions to reduce actual crime levels as well as the fear of crime not to mention anti-social behaviour.