This appetite for revenge against offenders will never cut crime

Angry Daily Mail readers should not define criminal justice policy. Further punishment for already abused troubled youngsters will only lead to more problems, says Mark Johnson

Mark Johnson
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 19 April 2011

Last week, this newspaper profiled the new head of the London probation service, Heather Munro. She expressed a new approach to managing offenders. It can be summarised in one word: respect. Over a lifetime of probation work, Munro has come to believe that listening to offenders when they express needs and treating them with the same respect businesses show their customers can help to change behaviour and reduce reoffending.

The Daily Mail was not impressed and neither were its readers. Online, there were many calls for Munro's immediate sacking and insults were hurled. Offenders were "little bastards" who need much tougher treatment, not this politically-correct nonsense.

Those readers think they want punishment, but in fact they are baying for vengeance. Frontline workers such as Munro and Metropolitan police officers, who are trying a talking approach with gangs, recognise that the UK's criminal justice system should not be built on vengeance. But look out of the window and you will see another line of lads in humiliating jackets, sent out in the name of community payback. This might make the public feel good, but it does nothing to cut crime because it isn't about helping bad boys address their behaviour and change: it's simply a piece of theatre to satisfy the audience's desire for vengeance.
To read more of this article, click here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/apr/19/appetite-revenge-offenders-will-not-cut-crime