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Discuss the aims of punishment - Coggle Diagram
Discuss the aims of punishment
Rehabilitation
Prisons can help rehabilitate someone because programmes are available for criminals
Programmes:
Drug and Alcohol treatment-
Treat alcohol and substance misuse
Anger management-
For violent offenders (ART)
Rehabilitation
is the idea that punishment can be used to reform or change offenders so they no longer offend.
Theory:
Skinners Operant Learning Theory
Supports the use of token economies to encourage prisoners to produce more
acceptable behaviour
Favoured by the left realists!
Criticism:
Right Realism-
argues that rehabilitation programmes have only limited success, in that many offenders go on to re-offend.
Deterrence
General-
The fear of punishment that prevents others from committing similar crimes
Treadmill-
It would force prisoners to walk continuously as a form of punishment. This could pump water, grained corn or be attached to a large fan for resistance.
The Crank-
Served no other purpose then to exhaust and punish a prisoner who had been misbehaving in Gaol, or was sentenced to hard labour ( they would turn the crank 15,000 times a day)
Individual-
Punishment imposed on offenders in order to deter them from committing further crimes
Prison works-
based partly on the idea that if sentences are tough enough, offenders will not want to go back to jail again.
In the UK in the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher's government introduced a tough new system in juvenile detention centres described as a
'short, sharp shock'
to deter young offenders.
Favoured by the right realists!
Criticism:
There is
little evidence to support
that 'short, sharp shock' or 'boot camps' reduced youth offending in the UK and USA.
Theory:
Rational choice theory
Sees individuals as rational actors
who weigh up the costs and benefits before deciding whether to offend.
Therefore, severe punishments and a high chance of getting caught will deter offending.
Retribution
Retribution-
means paying back. It involves inflicting punishment on an offender as vengeance for a wrong or criminal act.
'Just deserts'
criminals should get their 'just desert' offenders deserve to be punished and society is morally entitled to take its revenge.
Example:
Nicolas Robinson (too harsh)
Robinson, 23, was jailed for 6 months for stealing a £3.50 case of bottled water during the night riots were happening in the South of London.
Theory:
Durkheim
Durkheim, a functionalist sociologist, believes that the moral outrage that retribution expresses performs the function of boundary maintenance. If the offender is punished then everyone else remembers the difference between right and wrong.
Favoured by the right realists!
Criticism:
If there is a fixed tariff of penalties, punishment has to be inflicted even
where no good is going to come of it
, for example on a remorseful offender who will commit no further crimes
Reparation
Reparation is a
practical way to pay back for the harm caused by the offence,
either by directly repairing the harm or through constructive work to help the local community.
(The victim is usually consulted about what should be done)
Example:
Financial compensation-
to the victim. e.g. paying for the cost of repairing damage done to someone's property
Unpaid Work-
to make reparation to society through community payback. e.g. removing graffiti from public buildings
Theory:
Labelling Theory
Labelling theory favours restorative justice as a way of reintegrating offenders into mainstream society. By enabling them to show genuine remorse, it permits their reintegration and prevents them being pushed into secondary deviance.
Favoured by right realists!
Criticism:
Reparation may not work for all types of offence. Compensation for damage to property or minor offences may be fairly straightforward, but can reparation be made for sexual or violent crimes? A rape victim may not want to face or forgive the rapist. By definition, reparation to homicide victims is impossible!
Public protection
Incapacitation-
punishment may be used to protect the public from further offending by incapacitating offenders.
Example
of IPP (imprisonment for public protection):
Brought in by
the Criminal Justice Act 2003
.
Kate's son John was 19 when he was convicted of wounding after an argument that turned into a pub brawl. He was given an IPP with a minimum tariff of two years to serve. he was released three years over the tariff.
(Only 4% of around 100 prisoners of IPP total population have been released)
Theory:
Lombroso
Biological theories Lombroso argued that criminals are biologically different from the rest of the population and it is
not possible to change or rehabilitate them
. He favoured sending habitual criminals into exile, for example detaining them on islands away from the public.
(Other biological theories of criminality have favoured chemical or surgical castration to incapacitate sex offenders.)
Favoured by right realists!
Criticism:
Incapacitation leads to longer sentences and long-term
'warehousing'
of offenders with little hope of release.
This leads to an ever-rising prison population and associated costs.