WHILE recognising that the legitimate use of cautions may have its place in our criminal justice system, the blatant widespread abuse, sometimes following very serious crimes, by unscrupulous constabularies of such an option is self-evidently totally and utterly unacceptable.
Still, if my own experience and that of certain friends and neighbours is anything to go by, perhaps we should be grateful that these offences are being recorded at all.
As pointed out, one major traditional excuse is that, whatever the gravity of the alleged transgression, a conviction would most likely be unachievable — regardless of the somewhat paradoxical and hypocritical fact that an admission of guilt is a ‘sine qua non’ condition of the offer being made in the first place.
Besides, there will be some, even if totally innocent of the charge, who will take the caution in order to ensure swift release and avoid subsequent legal inconveniences but without realising that such a seemingly-innocuous compromise could one day severely jeopardise their prospects relating to employment, insurance, travel, etc.
The officers and lawyers involved should be disciplined and prosecuted – or at least let off with an official warning, of course.
DAVID DIMENT, Riverside Court, Oxford
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