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Dealing With Offenders; custodial sentencing - Coggle Diagram
Dealing With Offenders; custodial sentencing
Decision made by the court that the punishment for a crime should involve time being in 'custody'-prison or some other closed therapeutic/educational institution e.g psychiatric hospital
Aims of Custodial Sentencing
Deterenene
Unpleasant prison experience is putting off people from committing the crime. Based of the behaviourist idea of conditioning through experience of punishment.
General deterrence- aims to send broad message to members of given society that crime will not be tolerated
Individual deterrence- prevent individual from reoffending in light of their own experience
Incapacitation
Offender is taken out of society to prevent reoffending as means of protecting the public
Retribution
Society is enecting revenge for the offence by making the offender suffer and the level of suffering should be proportionate to the seriousness of the crime. Based of an 'eye for an eye'
Rehabilitation
Prison should provide opportunities' to develop skills and training ir to access treatment programmes as well as giving them a chance to reflect on their defence. Should leave prisons better adjusted and ready to take their place back in society.
shirley claims that offenders who take part in collage education programmes are 43% less likely to reoffend
However may learn to become better criminals 'school of crime'. leaen tricks of tge trades from more experienced prisoners and acquire contacts.
Psychological effects of custodial sentencing
Stress and Depression
Suicide rates are higher in prisons, as are self harm. stress of prison experience also increases risk of developing psychological disorders following release
Curl Bartol suggest prison can be brutal, demeaning and generally devastating. 119 people kill themselves in prisons 32% increase from previous year. Found 25% women and 15% men reported symptoms of psychosis
however does not include number of inmates who experienced psychotic symptoms before incarcerated- confounding variables
Institutionalisation
Having acted to the norms of prison life, prisoners might be used to this and no longer be able to function on the outside.
Prisonisation
Prisoners are socialised into adapting inmate code. Behaviour that may be unacceptable in outside world may be encouraged and rewarded inside the walls of the institution.
cheesman (2003) found that many aggressive incidents in prison resulted due to the need to relive stress. Suggesting that aggressive incidents in prison could be due to the surroundings of prisons being highly stressful so aggression is the effect of the circumstance
Recidivism
Reoffending following judicial punishment
573 000 were cautioned, convicted or released from custody-> 149 000 of these committed proven reoffence's within a year
Prisoners becoming institutionalised
Basic psychological needs are met and feel sense of belongingness as there fellow inmates in similar position. If come home in environment were daily life is a struggle it is easy to see why they reoffend to go back to prison life
Improvement would be to support inmates following release e.g employment + family and relationship counselling
Non adherence to behaviourist principles
Greatest amount of effect for punishment or reinforcement is if its received at same time of action. But sentencing is some time after action and so both do not coincide. Therefore connection between two are weaker and it should be strong to be effective.
Mental health and addiction issues
Poor mental health rates especially addiction disorders is related to crime rates, so problem if not treated in prison, makes an offender vulnerable to reoffending
Malott and Fromader conducted survey with 102 australian male offenders asking about how the felt from release from prisons and what they felt likelihood of recidivism
Found offenders felt unsupported from release and greater support would reduce reoffending. Supports institutionalised