State Crime Example: The Post Office Scandal | A Level Sociology | Crime & Deviance

welcome to this T2 sociology topic video on crime and deviant in this video we're going to look at State crimes and the post office Scandal the post office scandal in the UK is one of the most significant miscarriages of Justice in British legal history and involved the wrongful prosecution of hundreds of sub

postmasters and sub poost Mistresses between 2000 and 2014 many were accused of theft fraud and false accounting due to faults in the Horizon it system used by the post office the Scandal has since been identified as a state crime as it reflects a systematic abuse of power by a state controlled institution causing

significant harm to individuals and

communities in 1999 the post office introduced Horizon a computer system designed by Fujitsu to manage Financial transactions in post offices across the UK however the system contained critical flaws that led to accounting discrepancies these errors falsely indicated that sub postmasters and sub poost Mistresses independent contractors who manage local post offices had significant financial

shortfalls sometimes amounting to tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds rather than investigating the system itself self the post office pursued legal action against its own workers accusing them of theft fraud and false accounting over 700 individuals were prosecuted many of whom faced imprisonment Financial ruin or the destruction of their reputations some victims lost their

homes families or even businesses others faced Mental Health crisis and tragically some even took their own lives it wasn't until 2021 after years of campaigning that the court of appeal overturned the convictions of 39 sub postmasters with more cases later quashed investigations revealed that the post office knew of Horizon's flaws but continued to rely on the system and