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History of punishment and the CJS - Coggle Diagram
History of punishment and the CJS
Punishments before prisons
The ducking stool
Branding
Whipping
The stocks
Public humiliation
Death penalty
For
Form of social control
Small chance of mistakes
Prevents anomie
Incapacitation of offender so cannot reoffend
Acts as a deterrant
Fits the crime / justice / retribution
Against
Doesn't help with the crime - revenge, not justice
No chance of rehabilitation for offender
Mistakes can be made in the CJS - wrongful killing
Little quantitative evidence that the death penalty actually deters others - if it did, then it would be implemented everywhere
Expensive to have the death penalty
Biases in the CJS, so disproportionally affects EMs and W/C
Individuals can experience a very painful death
Aims of punishment
Incapacitation
Physically removing individual / ability from society, so they are unable to commit the crime
Eg. death penalty, removing hands from thieves, prison
Stops offender from repeating the crime
Retribution
Reactionary - reacting to an individual going against society rather than deterring
Revenge against offender
Justice for victims
Eg. death penalty, fines for theft, prison
Reaffirms boundaries
Deterrance
Acts as a shocking reminder of the repercussions of breaking the law
Makes an example out of criminals (eg. prisons)
Rehabilitation
Braithwaite - reintegrative shaming of the act, rather than the individual
Eg. training programmes, speed awareness courses, education, psychiatrist, anger management in prisons
Helps them reintegrate into society after committing crime
Durkheim on society
Change from retributive to restitutive justice
Preindustrial society - retributive
Punishment needed to be very visible
Everyone in society wanted retribution
Society was communal - if someone stole from an individual, they stole from society
Social cohesion, strong value consensus, leading similar lives - punishment needed to be seen by everyone to maintain this
When a crime was committed in society, the criminal was committing the crime against the entire society
'Punishment serves to heal the wounds done to the collective sentiment'
Postindustrial society - restitutive
Society today has less social cohesion and we have a specialised division of labour
Restores society by removing offender - continues functioning as a society while justice is served quickly and individually
Society needed to be restored after a crime has been committed
History of punishment
18th century
Punishment for over 200 different types of crimes
Eg. murder, treason, pickpocketing, theft
Vast majority were punished with public hangings
20th century
Prisons were the main form of punishment after that point
Overcrowding in prisons, so alternate forms are necessary
1965 - public hangings were abolished
Eg. fines, community service, ASBOs
19th century
By the year 1900, 90% of the crime population ended up in prison
Through industrialisation, the specialised division of labour moved from retributive to restitutive
Move away from public hangings - still common but introduction of prisons
Workhouses
Purposefully bad living / working conditions
Wore a uniform
Split apart from families
Inspired prisons
Poor / unemployed / public nuisances - didn't warrant a public hanging, but punishment was necessary
Prisons today
Releasing prisoners due to overcrowding
Roger Matthews
Expensive way of making people worse, as they learn new ways to commit crime
Prisons usually have a high proportion of drug / alcohol addicts / mentally ill inmates - makes individuals worse due to no rehabilitation
Prisons act as 'universities of crime'
Reasons for offending are not addressed - doesn't solve the causes of offending
New Labour - reduced minimum time served to 40% rather than 50%
E. Solomon
Prisons are not fit for purpose
Do nothing to rehabilitate offenders
People are being imprisoned for minor offences
UK has more life sentenced prisoners than the whole of Western Europe combined
Analysis (AO3)
75% of ex-inmates reoffend within 9 years and 40% reoffend within the first 12 months
High rates of recidivism - returning to prison for another crime
Prison population rose from 60,000 in 1997 to 95,500 in 2023
Functionalism on punishment
Acts as a safety valve, as minor crimes committed are not punished - shows acceptable level of deviance
Reaffirms boundaries
Social control prevents anomie
Restitutive rather than retributive justice - privately administered so society can continue functioning
Creates social cohesion by reinforcing value consensus
Allows specialised division of labour to continue functoning smoothly - noone stops work to watch as they know justice is being served
Durkheim argues that crime, deviance, and punishment are important for all healthy societies
Marxism on punishment
Althusser - RSA forces people to follow bourgeois norms and values due to fear of force / threat / coercion
Fines disproportionally target W/C who cannot pay it - finds the capitalist economy
Serves interests of the bourgeoisie by maintaining their property - punish people for theft, property remains theirs
Prisons are the main form of punishment under capitalism
Excluded from minimum wage (1998), earning below minimum wage pay in prisons (USA)
Settlements outside the court - the rich don't have to stand trial (Donald Trump, Prince Andrews)
Disproportionally targets W/C rather than the M/C - rich can afford good lawyers
Bail can easily be paid off by the M/C to get out, whereas W/C cannot
AO2
Both prisons and factories have strict disciplinary
David Downes - prisons soak up about 30-40% of the unemployed, so capitalism appears more successful, by hiding its failings
Melossi and Pavarini - capitalism puts a price on workers' time, so to 'do time' is to 'pay' for their crime
Evaluation (AO3)
Harsher punishments to minor crimes leading to overcrowding in prisons, and not enough resources
Reduced post-2010, where coalition put in budget cuts, so less arrests and less police
New Labour Tony Blair - 'tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime'
Starmer's Labour 2024 - overcrowding in prisons, so releasing prisoners after 40% of the sentences
High rates of recidivism - reoffending rates
Who ends up in prisons
Gordon - W/C end up in prisons, and the crime they commit is a rational response to the oppression they face
Cicourel - W/C and EM are put into prisons due to selective law enforcement and typifications
Sayer - M/C take advantage of loopholes within laws
Heidensohn - men are put in prison more as they have the opportunity for crime, whereas women are controlled, but when women do commit crime, it is punished more harshly
Garland - 'it ceases to be the incarcerated individuals offenders and become the systematic imprisonment of whole groups,,, young black males
Drawbacks of prisons
Institutionalisation - prisoners become used to life inside prison and cannot adapt to life outside
Liema and Kunst - unstructured unsterviews with 'lifers[
From one institution (young offenders / mental health to prison
Found that prisoners developed institutionalised personality traits, involving distrust of others, poor decision making, and difficulty engaging in relationships
Transcarceration - spend entire life in prison
Alternatives
Curfews - banned from certain places at certain times
Tagging - banned from certain places at certain times
ASBOs for minor offences (eg. loitering, playing loud music)
Surveillance and self-surveillance - stops people from committing crime
Restorative justice - offenders who have committed an offence with direct victims having the opportunity to meet the victim and apologise / recognise their problems
Braithwaite reintegrative shaming - the act is labelled as deviant rather than the offender, allowing them to reintegrate back into society without the label of criminal attached to them