Why is the Golden Age of Policing’ such a potent myth in British society?

The Golden Age of policing refers to a time when things were apparently better. We have all heard elders in our society talk of the good old days when none of today’s atrocities happened: when the police did a better job, when there weren’t as many criminals. However how true is the myth of the Golden Age? In order to examine this myth it is crucial to look at the police and their roles back in the 1940s and 50s and compare it to their roles today and also look at society and their view of the police.

There is lots of historical evidence available to us about the police and how it has formed since, in particular the 18th Century. This evidence is based on original documentation from the time and gives us an accurate account, however we can only interpret and construct the history, as there is nobody alive to tell us otherwise. The so-called Golden Age is within living memory and we only have to use the evidence, to tell us of the time, but we can also ask people who were there. These people can compare current policing to the Golden Age and in contrast an age of better times is created.

This works with other issues not only policing. Police roles in Britain remained fairly static from the early 19th Century to the 1960s. The police had four main functions, the first being Crime Prevention, to prevent crime before it began. Policing was visible and unmilitary. Crime Detection was a function that involved the apprehension and prosecution of criminals. It did not really involve detection, as this was a low priority function because there was paranoia about spies. Detection involved invisible policing in contrast to the visible policing of crime prevention.

The third function was that of Public Order, which dealt with rioting. This was a variable function as public order was stable within society. The last function was the service role. The service role was an important part of policing at the time as the police did many other jobs including tax collection, auxiliary firemen and licensee inspections. The police provided cheap labour for society and were a huge part of community life. The role of the police changed with the introduction of The Police Act 1964. The structure of the police also changed and the tripartite relationship was put in place, which is still seen today.

The main roles of the police have changed slightly and now include crime prevention, crime detection, the service role and a range of special units that have become more important than the public order role. Special units within the police include units such as the Drugs Squad, Fraud Squads and public order squads like riot control and armed police. It is said that these specialist units have had an influence in the decline of the service role. Officers do not spend as much time dealing with low level crime, as they are unable to solve this type of crime and so instead concentrate on high impact crime.

The police moved away from the service role as professionalism was introduced and a move was made from the amateur unskilled labourer to a professional employee who in turn was paid well. To join the police became a career. Policing today in comparison to the Golden Age is seen as distant and remote. Policing in modern times has become technological. The use of mobile phones and walkie-talkies has increased efficiency within the police. The police drive round in cars and are hardly seen in some areas. Other areas do have a police presence but it is not always welcome.

The police are now more readily armed and use deadly force if needed. In recent years even this year innocent people have been shot and killed by the police. Policing has become bureaucratic and this has caused limited results. Policing has become ruled by administration and paperwork and sees police officers spending most of their time in police stations. In the 1940s and 50s policing was seen as very benevolent. They were members of a community who were well natured and well mannered, they lived within the locality and were seen as non-confrontational.

There was an apparent use of minimal force. They didn’t carry arms and the local bobby was seen with nothing other than his truncheon. Society at the time was in a state of stability and the public order role of police was very minimal. Policing was seen as un-technological. They didn’t have the use of cars or mobiles and the local bobby was visible walking or on a bike. Policing was something that was good. To examine this view we must first analyse people’s attitudes at the time. During the Second World War people were used to figures of authority and they were used to discipline.

There was social cohesion, as people seemed to know their place in society. People didn’t move about the country as they do today and it was usual to be born and die in the same area. Britain was in a state of economic stability, there was full employment and people seemed happy. The police as figures of authority were respected and put on a pedestal. A survey called Exploring the English Character, conducted by Geoffrey Gorer in 1955 found the public to think, “The police represent an ideal model of behaviour and character”. (Reiner 1989) The policing of the time seems somewhat idyllic.

What is not mentioned is that for the police this era was not necessarily a good one. The job of policeman was not seen as a career at the time. It was a semi skilled job that had a very low wage and this did not get better until the 1970s. Police malpractice in the form of corruption was wide spread through out the force and there were a number of police scandals involving Chief Constables. (Emsley). The Chief Constable of Worcester was imprisoned for fraud and the Chief Constable for Cardigan was disciplined for not administering his force correctly.

The Chief Constable for Nottingham was suspended and later acquitted but damage had been done to the police already. (Wall) Recorded crime was on the increase and there were race riots in Nottingham. British society was becoming a consumer society and there was a huge increase in car ownership. This in turn gave the police new duties in traffic control. The police began to have anxieties about the public. (Reiner 2000) In 1960 this malpractice led to the Royal Commission on policing. It is worth noting that to have a Royal commission something must have been wrong in the first place.

The media have their own part to play in the representation of the police at the time. There was minimal media coverage and Dixon Of dock Green was the fictional policeman that covered the television screens. He was the perfect friendly local policeman that helped the community and was even kind to the local villains. Unlike today where our screens are inundated with police programmes from “The Bill” to the fly on the wall police documentaries where the police are portrayed in both good and bad lights. Today the police are seen more as Robocop than Dixon who would wade in with guns and bombs rather than a truncheon.

Today’s police are constantly in the public eye and because of this the public are more aware of what actually goes on within the police. In conclusion the Golden Age is a myth in British society as there is little evidence that it was better. (Wilson) Policing in the 1950s was different from what it is today but that is expected of anything in life, it cannot stay the same. The Golden age was based on blind faith and ignorance of what policing involved at a harmonious time. In today’s age we are confronted with growing concerns of crime from terrorism to drug trafficking which have not been seen in such large scales in this century.

Public attitudes to the police have changed and so have the attitudes of those that work in the police. Public confidence has declined due to the rising crime rates that have soared due to cultural, social and economic factors and the increase in reporting and scandals within the police, however the police are in a better state today than before. (Downes and Morgan in Maguire 2002). The Golden Age myth will continue and in fifty years time the Golden Age will be replaced with a new one that is constructed by law-abiding citizens of the police of today.

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The Golden Age

Many parents and lawmakers argue that enforcing a law against physical discipline such as pking would be much too difficult to enforce. It would essentially be placing police in everyone’s living rooms as they would need to investigate all cases of pking, no matter how minor. Police officers already have their hands full dealing with adults who beat, torture, and severely abuse their children. (pking should not be illegal) Parents are not stupid, they know the difference between abuse nd pking and can safely punish their child without falling into the classification of child abuse.

This is a valid argument, law enforcement really couldn’t investigate every claim of corporal punishment. However by making pking illegal it would be easier to get help to children who are abused. Most of the time pking isn’t severe enough to cause harm to the child. But in some cases where the parent is under a lot of stress or under the influence of drugs or alcohol pking can and does cause harm to the child, not Just physically but emotionally as well.

By making it illegal it gives law enforcement the opportunity to uncover cases of real abuse when before they couldn’t investigate because it was Just pking. Not knowing to what degree of force is being used against the child. Many parents and lawmakers argue that enforcing a law against physical discipline such as pking would be much too difficult to enforce. It would essentially be placing police in everyone’s living rooms as they would need to investigate all cases of pking, no matter how minor.

Police officers already have their hands full dealing with adults who beat, torture, and severely abuse their children. (pking should not be illegal) Parents are not stupid, they know the difference between abuse and pking and can safely punish their child without falling into the classification of child abuse. This is a valid argument, law enforcement really couldn’t investigate every claim of corporal punishment. However by making pking illegal it would be easier to get help to children who are bused.

Most of the time pking isn’t severe enough to cause harm to the child. But in some cases where the parent is under a lot of stress or under the influence of drugs or alcohol pking can and does cause harm to the child, not Just physically but emotionally as well. By making it illegal it gives law enforcement the opportunity to uncover cases of real abuse when before they couldn’t investigate because it was just pking. Not knowing to what degree of force is being used against the child. stress or under the intluence ot drugs or alcohol pking can and does cause abused. Most ot the time pking isn’t severe enough to cause harm to the child every claim ot corporal punishment. However by making pking illegal it would be child without talling into the classification ot chil d abuse. This is a valid argument, should not be illegal) Parents are not stupid, they know the ditterence between abuse officers already nave their hands tull dealing witn adults who beat, torture, and force is being used against the child.

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The Golden Age of Hollywood

By the early mid-thirtiess, American Cinema became a dominant leader on the universe screens. Economical, societal, and cultural factors led Hollywood accomplish this place. During the period between 1927 and 1963, besides referred as the “Golden age of Hollywood” , a distinguishable cinematic signifier, called Classical Hollywood manner, emerged. Harmonizing to Maltby, “the thought of “the classical” implies the observation of regulations of composing and aesthetic organisation that produce integrity, balance, and order in the ensuing artwork”. Those regulations of cinematic use and sentence structure of movie, marked Classical Hollywood manner as smooth, fluid and easy apprehensible. Hollywood movies were organized to offer pleasance to their audience and involved sexual experiences, nakedness or offense to accomplish that. For American Catholics, this attitude appeared to be deceptive and corrupting the society. After the attending was given to this fact, in early 1930’s, The Code was written by a group of Hollywood executives, The Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America. A wide scope of regulations and ordinances had bit by bit developed over the old ages in order “to extinguish any moral ambiguity in a movie’s narrative progression”. But how these judicial admissions of the Production Code changed the nature of Hollywood’s merchandises? In order to reply this inquiry I am traveling to present how Hollywood merchandises appeared to be before and after The Production Code by taking an analysis of two utterly incompatible movies:Baby Face( 1933 ) and Wuthering Highs.

In the Pre-code period, movies invariably presented people in sexually implicative, and provocative state of affairs and amplified delinquency as a manner to accomplish a better life. Films referenced sexual allusions, libertinism, harlotry, lewdness, crossbreeding, illegal drug usage, force, etc. During the hard economic times of Great Depression ( 1930 – 1940 ) , there formed the belief that the lone manner to acquire fiscal success was through offense. This was the factor that made mobster movies so insurgent to an audience. As an illustration, politically-oriented societal job movies ridiculed politicians by portraying them as incompetent villains and prevaricators where movies like Capone or Small Caesar were seen as heroic instead than evil. Women, often associated with sexual hints, were a dominant figures in movies. Along with having stronger female characters, movies examined female capable affairs that would non be revisited until decennaries subsequently in American movies. Hollywood did non scruple to expose adult females in bare garments, nor did they waver to demo images that allured audience to interracial relationship and sex thoughts. This sort of mentions arouse an thought that Hollywood attempted to make movies for grownups merely, but in fact, it wounded up conveying big audiences of all ages to cinema. This states that above mentioned figures were influential among people in those yearss and allowed Hollywood increase its production extremely. Get downing with the analysis of Baby Face, let’s see how the pre-code paradigm was working within this movie.

Furthermore, Baby Face arouses an attack that political system works to mistreat weak and hapless people. This is the ground why the relationship between Lily and black miss Chico is so greatly amplified as they represent a category and gender issue in those yearss. Because they are adult females, they both know they are on equal terms and that society treats them as cipher. In the way to alter this settled point of position, Lily abuses the cringle holes of a system. This is one of the many times in Baby Face where the deduction of sex is every bit tragic as if audience is a informant to the existent act. Lily’s ability to be unashamedly unfastened to sexual Acts of the Apostless for her ain benefit gave her a liberated esthesia, and made her short ascent up the societal ladder both exceeding and thrilling to watch. The movie disgracefully implies Lily kiping her manner to the top by agencies of cutting to the exterior of the edifice and traveling up a few floors every clip she seizes a new male lover. The transmutation that Lily goes through via her vesture in the movie demonstrates her addition in societal place and how cold she has become on the interior in order to accomplish that. Baby Face is non merely about Lily’s mode to utilize sex as a power tool, but besides about work forces who gladly gives off money and other assets to hold an experience of Lily’s animal pleasances. Thus Baby Faceis non about utilizing sex to mount the societal ladder, but mounting it the lone manner it is possible with fortunes that has been given by political system.As there are few movies in the history of film that have of all time been so direct about satisfying the power of sex,Baby Faceis one of the most pre-Code movies that could ne’er hold been released in any signifier following the coming of the Production Code in 1934.

Following the July 1, 1934 the determination by studios put power over movie censoring that promoted the new order of concern. Production codification assured Americans that the motion-picture industry is traveling to be purified of coarseness and unscrupulousness, and changed to righteousness and virtuous amusement. The Production Code stipulated the guidelines of “what was and was non allowable content in Classical Hollywood’s field of representation” for a public audience in the United States ( Maltby, 2003: 62 ) . Studios, after censoring authorization, strived to re-issue movies from the 1920s and early 1930s, and were forced to do comprehensive cuts. Part of pre-code movies survived integral because they were excessively combative to be re-released, whilemost of them experienced incorrigible harm. Harmonizing to Butter, “The production codification sought non merely to find what could be portrayed on screen but besides to advance traditional values”. Sexual dealingss outside of matrimony were forbidden from being portrayed as attractive or pleasing and after codification constitution they were presented in a manner that would non elicit passion or do them look tolerable ( LaSalle, 2000 ) .

Among the undisputedly positive facets of the Code being enforced was the money it saved studios in holding to redact, cut, and alter movies to acquire blessing from the assorted province boards and censors. The money saved was in the 1000000s yearly. Many felt the film industry had ever been morally questionable.

 

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The Scale of the Post War Golden Age of Economic Growth Enjoyed

In your own words, outline the scale of the post war Golden Age of economic growth enjoyed by Western European nations. The Golden age of Economic growth occurred in the aftermath of World War two and continued until the mid 1970’s and led to the 1970’s recession. During this period of time the World economy expanded at never before seen levels, World output of manufactures quadrupled between 1950 and 1970 and at the same time trade in manufactures increased by 10 times the previous levels.

Since then historians and economists have been attempting to explain the reasons for this unprecedented growth. Throughout this essay I am going to focus on the analysis of two particular economic historians Hobsbawn and Crafts. After World War two had ended the previously powerful Europe laid in tatters, France and Germany were virtually destroyed and Britain was near financial ruin. America emerged from World War two as the Largest and most powerful economy in the world and as such decided to aid the recovery of Europe.

Clearly a strong Europe was better for America as a trading partner than a weak one. This resulted in America putting into effect the Marshall plan. It was a four year plan the began in April 1948 during this time America gave Europe $13 billion of aid roughly 5% of America’s GDP at the time. This clearly provided a much needed boost to a Europe that agriculture sector had been totally destroyed. Is this then the factor that enabled growth in western Europe.

It was clearly a factor that aided growth but could it have been as Cradfts has suggested simply that Western Europe was playing ‘Catch-up’ with countries such as America. “ This meant that growth had been below trend and the opportunity existed for rapid growth by correcting policy errors and repairing damaged economies. ” The U. S. A was virtually untouched by WW2 certainly much less than Europe and this enabled rapid growth, once Europe had emerged from WW2, it was able to share in a technology boost that America had previously experienced and ultimately gain such high growth very quickly.

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The Golden Ages

In about the 2nd century AD. Rome had its golden age. Also, around 500 to 300 BC was the Greek golden age. They both had many achievements during they’re golden ages, and many of them have affected us today. In Rome’s golden age they made concrete and roads. This helps us today because concrete is […]

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A Golden Age: 1960s

The 1960s era, commonly referred to as the “Golden Age”, represents a fascinating turning point for economic and post war policies world over. It was a decade stretch that lasted soon after the Second World War to initial oil crisis that began in 1973.

Recognized economists, politicians and senior government officials have deliberated upon the socio-economic policies and their consequences during that period.

There has been much speculation concerning whether there were errors in the 1960s economic policies that could have contributed to the great inflation of the 1970s. Key players’ roles in that era’s major economic decisions are scrutinized to establish their positive and negative contributions to the great economic boom and the negatively perceived inflation.

Some of these figures included Lord O’Brien who was the Bank of England’s Governor between 1966 and 1973. The considerations were both from an official or a political position held by the individuals.

However, even with the inflation, the 1960s decade seem to be an economic golden age as viewed from the 1990s perspective due to the major economic reformations and inventions that took place during the period. It is in this respect regarded as an economic apogee whose high/crest preceded the tribulations decent that followed. was faster than ever in history (Jason, 2001, p.45).

The unemployment level in Britain for example remained below 2.5% of the total labour. In many instances, it remained below 2%, far much below the proceeding two decades. For most of this golden decade, the inflation averaged below 4% even though it was a reason for major concern especially as it rose to between 5-6% in and within the last 2 years of the decade.

The 1967 balance of payments devaluation particularly led to surplus that was very healthy after it was affected to abide to post war years problems.

Generally, 1960s is regarded as a social and economic policy experimental period where major innovations took place and resulted to admirably noteworthy economic revolutions. In Britain for example the endless departures successions in the countries fiscal policies including gains in capital tax, regulatory tax, selective employment and corporation tax were major economic factors on the one side of the ledger whereas grants on investments and regional employment premiums comprised the other (Diller, 1995, p.23).

The National Plan and the National Economic Development Council were the major economic organs of the government that attempted to accelerate the economic growth rate especially through the use of long successive experimentation of income policies to control inflation.

Industrial restructuring was done through the industrial reconstruction corporation as a concerted effort to have an overhaul of the industrial. The 25% premium surrender on investment currency on temporary surcharged imports played a vital role in the balance of payments operations as efforts were made to join the European Community.

Other methods included opening of new universities as well as relaxation of procedures of Open University Learning system. This was facilitated by relaxations in the “permissiveness” law.

However, the golden age survivors usually do not see back to it with any particular individual resounding success. Most of them don’t have the feeling that they had singularly been carried or blessed for the successes but are sometimes retrospective on the fact that this period was also characterized by crises especially the balance of payments crisis.

Notably, the long uncertainties of currency, the 1968 catastrophic prediction of the following years and the long deferred 1967 devaluation to reduce difficulties in the balance of payments were some of these crises. And several years later, a number of the 1960s experiments were abandoned (Caircross, 1992, p.13).

Furthermore, the 1990s reappearances of difficulties in the balance of payments may perhaps revive the experiments and crises of the 1960s.

Considering for example the narrowly fixed exchange rate limits within the European monetary system, and the external deficit that is enormously increasing, the temptation to revert to the golden age policies and innovations is quite strong. Britain’s dilemma comes from an inclination of great magnitude of restoring her competitive power.

Other countries of the world have also experienced these difficulties as well although different world industrial economies experience substantiated differential effects.

This is especially considering the fact that continental countries had a faster growth rate as compared to the UK but in the 1950s they grew less fast than the UK did. All countries therefore had their unique problems.

Paris experienced riots and a strike that almost brought the government down early in 1968, between 1969-70 Germany suffered a great inflation than at any other time after the war whereas French franc devalued within one year after the sterling pound and again towards the end of the golden decade (Stuart, 1999, p.32).

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Life in Spain in the Golden Age

The Spanish Society during their Golden Age The golden age of Spain does not exactly refer to tremendous economic growth or an excellent era of monarchial rule in peace and prosperity rather it refers to the rule of Charles II, which was characterized by the weakening of the Castile, and the deteriorating Spanish crown. According […]

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