Politics & Crime prevention

Within the UK, the two main political parties,  conservative and labour, have had different approaches when it came to crime prevention. Conservatives have always took a more tough on crime angle whereas labour have focused more on rehabilitation. 

Margret Thatcher wanted heavy policing and stricter sentencing laws. Thatcher had stricter views on crime and believed punishment should be harsher and there was a zero tolerance for antisocial behavior. Thatcher also created neighborhood watch where citizens would come together and try and fight and stop crime together, so all of the work load wasn't on the police (Moores, C, 2017)

Tony Blair the UK labour prime minister from 1997-2007, was a believer in "tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime" Blair wanted a more modern view on crime rather then Thatcher. Blair wanted to figure out the reasoning behind the crime to try and prevent it in the future. But Blair also believed in tougher sentences for re offenders (BBC NEWS, 2002) 

Boris Johnson the prime minister from 2019-2022 focused on more police funding, tougher laws when it came to knife crime as there was a huge spike in knife crime within the last decade. He also pushed for more stop and searches in order to try and prevent crime. 

Keir Starmer stated in 2023 that he promises to cut violence against women and girls figures in half. While also stating he plans to do the same for violent crimes and knife crimes, as part of his five missions for the government. Keir Starmer also wanted to raise the confidence and belief in police as he believes as a nation we don't trust the police as much (BBC NEWS, 2023). 

In the more recent years there has been a much more bigger focus on rehabilitation rather then punishment, and also a bigger focus on why crime happens and what causes it. With this understanding it may help authorities to come up with strategies to help reduce crime. 

With a rising population and different political events happening, along with a change in society because of these events, there is range of new crimes, and different strategies are needed in order to try and tackle this crime. There is a Crime and Policing bill that was published February 2025, this bill wants to halve knife crime alongside violence against women and young girls, this bill also wants to help better the police by giving them more power in order for them to be able to combat antisocial behavior and terrorist behavior. This bill wants to also focus on regaining public confidence in the police (Home Office, 2025)