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unit 4 - 2.2 - Aims of punishment - Coggle Diagram
unit 4 - 2.2 - Aims of punishment
Retribution
Aim - to punish offenders on behalf of society and to exact vengeance for breaking society's moral codes.
Refers to the scale and severity of retribution. There are a fixed scale of sentences that are used in most cases
A display of public revulsion for the offence.
Contains an element of revenge; society and the victim are being avenged for the wrong done, e.g. the death penalty
can be seen to fulfil the biblical expression of ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life’.
Does not seek to alter future behaviour, merely a punishment
Backwards-looking.
Theory - Right realist - promote rational choice theory and assume that if someone commits a crime, they do so having decided to break the law. consider offenders to be accountable for their behaviours.
Functionalism - consider retribution to be helpful for boundary maintenance, reminds people the cost of committing crime
Rational choice theory - Assumes that offenders are rational actors who consciously choose to commit their crimes and are fully responsible for their actions. they must therefore suffer the outrage of society
rehabilitation
AIM -to use punishment as an opportunity to create real, internalisation change in the offender and reduce recidivism rates.
Opposite to retribution, forward looking, and assumes that criminal behaviour is as a result of free will, caused by factors that the defendant can do something about
EXAMPLE - Drug treatment and testing orders and programmes to treat alcohol dependence
Theory - Individualistic - support rehabilitation as an aim of punishment.
cognitive - favour CBT to teach offenders different ways of thinking
skinners behaviourism - supports the use of token economies in prison as positive reinforcement
Detterance
AIM - to put people off from reoffending and to prevent other people from ever committing any crime
using punishment to provent people from repeating criminal behaviours.
Can be general or individual
general
Aim to prevent society in general from breaking the law. if people see an individual being punished, they see what they will have to suffer if they commit a similar crime. In the past this was done through public punishment eg executions.
Individual
A suspended sentence is an example, as the term of imprisonment will only activate if further offending occurs. Puts people off offending through a fear of punishment
Theory - Marxists - likely to view criminality as inevitable due to the capitalist society in which we live. the sentences given are a means of controlling the working class who are more heavily policed than the upper class
social learning theory - could account for criminality. with the rate of recidivism so high, it could be that prisoners are learning how to commit more crime from fellow prisoners
Public Protection
Punishment must protect the public from dangerous criminals.
Physical restrictions could be:
imprisonment
curfew orders
electronic tagging
chemical castration (for sex offences in some USA states)
foreign travel bans (e.g. football hooliganism)
cutting off hands
Theory
Biological theories - criminals are biologically different from the rest of the population
Reparation
paying a sum of money to the victim via a compensation order issued by the courts, could involve making a reparation to society as a whole eg unpaid work
restorative justice - scheme which brings together offenders and victims so offender can make direct reparation
Labelling theory - favours restorative justice as a way of reintegrating offenders back into society, by enabling them to show genuine remorse
left realist approach - may seen reparation as a practical way to prevent crime and produce a long term change towards a more equal, caring society
Denunciation
Punishment helps to reinforce the moral and ethical codes of society. It maintains boundaries of acceptability
functionalists - would see punishments as a means of achieving solidarity in society. The reinforcing of boundaries of acceptability strengthen social cohesion