10. Dealing with offending behaviour: Custodial Sentencing Flashcards
What is custodial sentencing?
A judicial sentence determined by a court, where the offender is punished by serving time in prison or in some other closed therapeutic or educational institution, such as a psychiatric hospital.
What are the four main aims of custodial sentencing?
- Deterrence
- Incapacitation
- Retribution
- Rehabilitation
What is deterrence and how does it work?
The unpleasant prison experience is designed to put off individuals and society from engaging in offending behaviour. General deterrence sends a broad message to members of society that crime won’t be tolerated, individual deterrence discourages an individual from reoffending.
What is incapacitation and how does it work?
The offender is taken out of society to prevent them reoffending and to protect the public. The need for incapacitation hinges on the seriousness of the offence.
What is retribution and how does it work?
This is when society is enacting revenge for the crime by making the offenders suffer, the level of suffering should be proportionate to the seriousness of the crime. Based on the biblical nation of an ‘eye for an eye’.
What is rehabilitation and how does it work?
Rehabilitation is the idea that offenders should be reformed not punished, offenders should leave prison better adjusted and ready to take their place back in society. Prison should provide a place for offenders to reflect on their crimes.
What are the psychological effects of custodial sentencing?
- Stress and depression
- Institutionalisation
- Prisonisation
How is stress and depression higher in prison?
Suicide rates and self harm rates are much higher in prison than in the general population, prisoners are also more likely to suffer psychological disturbance following release.
How does custodial sentencing lead to institutionalisation?
Prisoners attempts to the norms and routines of prison life, inmates may become so accustomed to these that they’re no longer able to function on the outside.
What is prisonisation and what issues does it have?
Prisonisation is when prisoners are socialised into adopting an ‘inmate code’, behaviours that may be considered unacceptable in the outside world are encouraged and rewarded inside the prison.
What is recidivism?
Reoffending, a tendency to relapse into previous condition or mode of behaviour; in the context of crime, a convicted criminal who reoffends, usually repeatedly.
What are the problems of recidivism in the UK?
In 2013 the UK had reoffending rates of 57% (for reoffending within a year). The UK & US have highest recidivism rates in the world. Norway = lowest reoffending in Europe - less than half that of the UK - Norwegian prison system is much more open and about developing skills. Sometime criticised for being a ‘soft system’.
What are the evaluation points for custodial sentencing?
+ Evidence supports the psychological effects
- Individual differences
+ Opportunities for training in treatment
- Universities for crime
What evidence supports the psychological effects of custodial sentencing?
A study conducted by the Prison Reform Trust in 2014 found that 25% of women and 15% of the men in prison reported symptoms indicative of psychosis. This suggests that custodial sentencing is ineffective in rehabilitating the individual, particularly those who are psychologically vulnerable.
What problems do individual differences create?
Different individuals going to prison in different psychological states, each prison itself is different, therefore how an individual reacts to prison life it Is often unpredictable. Deciding whether a a custodial sentencing as a whole effective is therefore difficult.
