Only one in five believe courts and police are sufficiently resourced to deal with riots, with only one in eleven feeling so of the prison service
The riots seen over the last two weeks have brought many political issues to the fore – immigration and crime shooting up the political agenda, a public more concerned about far-right extremism, and the adequacy of our political leaders in dealing with crises like these have all been put in the spotlight. But another issue they have the potential to expose is the state of Britain’s criminal justice system.
Already under pressure with the ongoing prison overcrowding crisis, the British public do not believe that the three primary components of our judicial system are sufficiently resourced to deal with the riots. Just one in five Britons think the courts (22%) or police (19%) have the resources they need to adequately cope with the unrest, with only one in eleven (9%) feeling the same about the prison service.
For 62% of the public, the courts appear to have insufficient resources to deal with the situation, with this rising to 71% when it comes to the police and 81% with the prison service.
Perhaps most notable about this belief that the judicial system is insufficiently resourced is simply how uniform these thoughts are across the British public, including with very limited deviation between different voters.
Take the courts, for instance. A belief that they are sufficiently resourced is shared by 26% of Conservative and Reform voters, 23% of Labour voters and 19% of Lib Dems, while the idea that they are improperly resourced is held by between six in ten and seven in ten (59-71%) of these voter groups.
It is this clear level scepticism about the state of our criminal justice system that perhaps somewhat explains the lack of faith Britons have in the ability of the police to keep them safe from the rioters and for courts to correctly sentence them.
Our study earlier this week about reaction to the riots showed that only 38% of Britons have at least some confidence in the ability of the police to keep people safe from the unrest, while just a third of the public (34%) trust the courts to carry out the sentencing of those involved effectively.
Compared to how the public felt during the last set of major riots in 2011, when 53% had confidence the police could keep them safe and six in ten (61%) trusted courts to hand out appropriate sentences, this represents a significant reduction of the capabilities of key public services in the eyes of voters.
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Photo: Getty
