16. Criminal Justice And Punishment Flashcards
What is the main role of the CJS?
Crime reduction
What are the ways of Crime reduction used by the CJS?
- Detterance - put people off committing crime
- Protection - stop further harm to public
- Rehabilitation - reform, reeducate, retrain offenders
- Retribution - revenge and justice
Methods of crime control
-Increased use of imprisonment
-Probation
-Fines
-Community sentences
-Tagging
Approaches to justice - The Culture of control
-Shift towards a ‘culture of control’ where controlling, preventing ad reducing risk of people becoming victims takes priority
-Lead to a focus on more right realist approaches
How effective is prison?
-Prison doesn’t stop people re-offending
-High levels of imprisonment does not significantly reduce crime
Why is prison so ineffective?
-Period in prison disrupts lives eg less likely to have a stable family
-Released prisoners are stigmatised so may not see another way of life
-Prison is said to be ‘schools for crime’ where people learn the tricks of the trade and become better criminals
Profile of prisoners
-Chaotic backgrounds/childhood
-Experienced abuse
-Mental illness
-Unemployed
-Drug addictions
What is Reintegrative shaming?
-Criminals and victims are brought face to face in order to aid the victims recovery (by seeing criminals as real people who are sorry)
-To make offenders take responsibility for their actions (works best when they see the impact they’ve had one someone)
Functionalist views on punishment
-Provides an outlet for public anger and outrage
-Reasserts boundaries between right and wrong establishing social order
-Reinforces social regulation and control
-Reaffirms and strengthens social values
Marxist view on punishment
-Punishment is part of the repressive state apparatus
-Punishment is a mechanism of social control of the WC and means of reinforcing ruling class power
Surveillance Society - what is disciplinary power?
-Power is extended to control behaviour through monitoring or surveillance
-Power in modern society is increasingly linked to surveillance
Surveillance Society - what has there been a rise in?
-Significant rise in use of CCTV cameras creating the biggest surveillance society ever
-Tools: CCTV, number plate recognition, electronic tagging etc
-Computers store information as do phones used to locate people
Evaluation of Surveillance society
-Power of surveillance can increase the power of the state, could be deemed an oppressive form of social control
-If people think actions likely to be seen they are more likely to conform
-Many areas prone to crime report appreciation of cameras as they improve feelings of safety
-People can ignore surveillance/take steps to avoid it, form of displacement
