Abstract
Aplin highlights that “cuffing” crimes is an enduring discretionary police practice. Sixty-nine per cent of HBA cases (and 89% of incidents over three years) are not recorded as crimes, despite evidence of criminal offences. In justifying no-crime decisions, officers rely on perceived legalities and formal rules, such as the NCRS requirement for “victim confirmation” of crimes, as well as bias and subjective judgement. Performance target pressures and pre-empting CPS no-charge decisions are also explored. Overwhelmingly, findings illustrate that victim reluctance adversely impacts officer’s no-crime decisions. Manufacturing victim reluctance is effective in validating police inaction and in officers circumventing perceived “wasted workload.” If it is not crimed, it has technically “not happened,” which abrogates officers of responsibilities around investigation, prosecution and safeguarding.
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Notes
- 1.
Formerly British Crime Survey.
- 2.
This is the standard expected when an officer crime’s an incident. This is a civil (not criminal) standard of proof and is therefore easier to prove.
- 3.
Those cases which were crimed were 1, 6, 7, 9, 16, 18, 21, 24, 25, 26, 31, 32, 37, 38, 43, 44, 49, 50, 51, 57, 59, 60, 66, 68, 80, 85, 91, 92, 94, 95 and 96.
- 4.
Assaults: cases 13, 34, 39, 47, 74, 93. Threats to kill: cases 2, 5, 29, 41, 59, 64, 65, 67, 69, 70, 77, 78, 87, 99. Rape: case 97. False Imprisonment: cases 79, 86. Criminal damage ‘threat’: cases 62 and 73.
- 5.
The researcher was formally a CID trainer for several years and, aided by the Force Crime Registrar and crime audit unit, wrote and delivered the force wide crime evaluators course, specialising in training evaluators in NCRS and HOCR.
- 6.
Cases 15, 40, 61, 72 and 84.
- 7.
In other cases, incidents were closed due to communications operators accepting the officers ‘write off’ which negated the offences (cases 47, 13, 60).
- 8.
The lowest incident counts per day was 1893 with the highest 2913.
- 9.
Case 73 is an excellent illustration of resilient management bucking the trend.
- 10.
Cases 2, 5, 29, 41, 59, 64, 65, 67, 69, 70, 77, 78, 87, and 99.
- 11.
An Osman warning is given by police officers to intended victims to warn them of a threat to their life. This is derived from the case of R v Osman 2000 in which the ECHR ruled that public bodies such as the police are under a positive obligation to take preventative operational measures to protect an individual when there is real and immediate risk to life from the criminal acts of others. The Osman family appealed to the ECHR after one of their family was killed, arguing that the police owed a duty of care to the victim, that police should have taken steps to safeguard the victim and should not hold immunity from prosecution (Donald et al. 2009).
- 12.
The finished incident rule states that an incident comprising of a sequence of crimes between the same offender (or group of offenders) and the same victim should be counted as one crime if reported to the police simultaneously (HOCR 2016: 21).
- 13.
Cases 62, 29, 69 and 70 and police interviews n and f.
- 14.
Evident in cases 62, 29, 69, 70, 99 police officer n, f, b.
- 15.
Police officers m, b, f, n, i, e.
- 16.
This is reminiscent of ‘criming down’ where officers reduced section 47 assaults to ‘common assault’ resulting in victims having to seek civil rather than criminal redress (Bourlet 1990). It was the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 legislation that inhibited this, making section 39 common assault an arrestable offence (www.legislation.gov.uk).
- 17.
Police officer a, b, c, g, h, j, p and k.
- 18.
Violent crime is defined as crimes of violence with or without injury: Wounding and assaults (GBH, ABH); homicide, sexual offences such as rape, manslaughter, threats to kill, harassment, stalking, intimate personal violence (domestic abuse) (Home Office 2011).
- 19.
Police officer a, b, c, g, h, j, p, k.
- 20.
Which include FGM and FM.
- 21.
Cases 7, 9, 18, 20, and 58.
- 22.
Cases 8, 37, 38, and 51.
- 23.
Cases 11, 19, 24, 28, 33, 58, and 72.
- 24.
Police officers a, b, e, m, k, f, o, g and i.
- 25.
Evident in cases 16, 17, 39, 41, 57, 60, 74, 78, 79, 81 and 88.
- 26.
Under old HOCR rules, there was no requirement to ‘crime’ an incident unless there was a victim who would confirm the crime (HOCR 2014: 3). The new rules specify that officers are obliged to crime record the crimes even in the case of “unwilling victims.” This includes recording crimes made by third parties (HOCR 2016: 3).
- 27.
Prisoner processing includes doing fingerprints, photograph, descriptive forms, conducting interviews, preparing initial court prosecution file, conduct secondary investigation (interview other witnesses etc.).
- 28.
Arresting at the beginning of a shift was common practice, as most officers realise that arresting at the end of a shift would result in finishing at least 4 hours late to process the prisoner process, which would impact on an officer’s personal life.
- 29.
No further action [NFA].
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Aplin, R. (2019). The Grey Figure of Crime: If It Isn’t Crimed, It Hasn’t Happened. In: Policing UK Honour-Based Abuse Crime . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18430-8_4
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