The advantage, or disadvantage, depending on your viewpoint, of practising Law for nearly four decades is the striking contrast in the effect on the offender and the victims.  The changes, to a large extent mirror the changes in society, and societies attitude.

In my formative years I was disciplined by my parents. I knew the boundaries and the consequences and wouldn’t dare cross them. There was no physical chastisement, there was no need. My father always said a child was like a sapling. Plant it straight, nurture it and it will grow into an upright tree. Neglect it and it will grow crooked. School endorsed the difference between right and wrong with my rear meeting the cane and the slipper not infrequently as a young boys ebullience burst through ! Any gaps in my understanding of right and wrong were perfected by attending religious classes regularly.

At the same time the Police and Courts had a no nonsense policy: “break the law, pay the price”. I could be naive, I could be blinkered, but genuinely feel the publics attitude to the courts and criminal justice system was looked upon with a sense of confidence and respect not currently enjoyed.

Financial restraints are currently gnawing away at police forces across the country, remnants of a Legal aid system are denying many the right to legal help and advice, and the bulging capacity of the prisons has taken a costly toll, resulting in a quick turnover policy wherever possible.

As a solicitor in Leeds I see every day the changes. The police will readily refuse to investigate crimes, adopting such attitudes of “sort it out yourself”, “no further action” or “non prospect of detection”, which invariably ends a complaint in it’s tracks.

If a case is elevated to an open file status rest assured the bulk will result in “no further action”, a “caution” or a “reprimand”. If a criminal law case is serious enough to prevent the above the offenders may well get charged. The skill of applying for bail is a skill used again infrequently, as bail is offered where it would never have been previously. If an offence is serious enough to result in prison, the sentencing threshold has moved significantly, with the term being served ever diminishing. An offender sentenced to up to four years would have typically served half that period. Today it’s even less, as sentences are being cut to reduce the period of incarceration.

So why link discipline at home with the criminal justice machinery ?

The link seems all too clear. When families and schools exercised discipline, schools and children went to the equivalent of Sunday school, which now sounds wholly anachronistic, Youth and adult were clear on the rules:  offend and a price will be paid. The Police & the Criminal justice system were respected and feared.

The result was that the public walked the streets with less fear, the frequent reports of knife crimes by youths was unheard of. Similarly the idea of rioting to grab a freebee was as remote as seeing racially harassing mobsters invade The Albert Hall during a performance by The Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra and escape criminal prosecution.

Restoration of discipline within the home and schools with provision of a police force not diminished to an extent to render investigation a burden, and punishment when appropriate, may just return a decaying fabric of society to how it was, in what one has to concede were, if not ” the good old” but al least better days