Violent knife and sex offenders can increasingly escape prosecution if they show contrition and say sorry, a report Wednesday claims.
According to the Daily Telegraph, more than 147,000 people accused of offences including sex crimes, violence and weapons possession across the UK were given community resolutions in the year to March instead of being prosecuted.
Such resolutions do not result in a criminal record. The outlet set out the terms applied to each case of forgiveness against a background of jail overcrowding:
Police guidance says community resolutions should be restricted to low-level crimes, with offenders required to apologise to the victim, accept “responsibility” for their crime and offer some form of recompense.
But the resolutions, which are issued at the discretion of individual officers, have increased by 40 per cent since 2019 – when 102,574 were recorded – and are now nearly twice as likely as a criminal charge, according to an analysis of Ministry of Justice data.
The surge comes amid a deepening crisis in the criminal justice system. Prisons are so full that the Government is releasing thousands of criminals early next month in the wake of the riots, while police have raised concerns that any worsening of jail overcrowding could limit their ability to make arrests.
Jess Phillips, the Home Office minister responsible for safeguarding, has ordered a review of the police response to “non-contact” sexual offences.
This issue was reportedly raised by the inquiry into the rape and murder of Sarah Everard by Pc Wayne Couzens, who had a history of exposing himself to women.
Phillips told the Telegraph: “This Government has been clear that violence against women and girls is a national emergency, and we expect police to treat all sexual offences with the seriousness it warrants.”
Since 2019, community resolutions given for robbery have increased by 127 percent, from 175 to 397. Those issued for sex offences have risen by 29 percent, from 482 to 621.
Resolutions for offences involving violence against a person have risen by 57 percent, from 29,188 to 45,845, while those for possession of weapons are up 77 percent, from 1,590 to 2,821.
The surge in community resolutions comes as knife crime approaches record levels and orders given to clear prison space amid the sentencing of anti-migration rioters, protesters, and social media posters that will reportedly see at least 5,500 criminals released early by the autumn, as Breitbart News reported.
The left-wing Labour Party government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer has vowed to halve convictions within a decade.
The prison population in England and Wales hit 87,893 earlier this month – up by 397 in a week following the rioting linked to the recent Southport stabbings.
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