7 Criminal Offenders: Sentencing and Risk Assessment

Question 1

What is sentencing?

Answer 1

The imposition of a penalty upon a person convicted of a crime

Question 2

What is the sentencing philosophy?

Answer 2

The justifications which various sentencing strategies are based tend to be reflections of more deeply held social values

Question 3

What is the brief history of sentencing (late 18-early 19th, early 20th and recently)

Answer 3

Late 18th-early 19th:

• Emphasis on deterrence through rational punishment
• Severity became less important than quick, certain penalities (swift and certain)

Early 20th century
- Focus on rehabilitation, based largely on positivist philosophies

Recently
- Emphasized the need to limit the offender’s potential for future harm by separating them from society

Question 4

What was the mentality of the early days of sentencing?

Answer 4

The mentality of centuries ago held that crime was due to sin, and the suffering was the culprit’s due

Question 5

What is the cynical view of sentencing?

Answer 5

Justice is “what the judge ate for breakfast” - this showed judges more lenient depending on what they ate/how they feel

Question 6

What are the 5 goals of modern sentencing practices?

Answer 6

1. Retribution
2. Incapacitation
3. Deterrence
4. Rehabiliation
5. Restoration

Question 7

Describe the Retribution goal of sentencing

Answer 7

The act of taking revenge upon the criminal perpetrator

• Predicted upon a felt need for vengeance
• Goal: satisfaction

Then: death and exile commonly imposed for minor offences
Now: “just desserts” model of retribution: criminals deserve the punishment they receive, and should be appropriate to the type and severity of the crime

Question 8

Describe the Incapacitation goal of sentencing

Answer 8

The use of imprisonment or other means to reduce the likelihood that an offender will be capable of committing future offences

• This rationale seeks to protect innocent members of society from offenders who might do them harm if they were not prevented in some way
• Goal: protect innocent

Then: mutilation and amputation of the extremities to prevent repeating
Now: restraint, not punishment. Electronic confinement and biomedical intervention (e.g. chemical castration)

Question 9

Describe the Deterrence goal of sentencing

Answer 9

A goal of criminal sentencing which seeks to prevent people from committing crimes similar to the one for which an offender is being sentenced
-Goal: crime prevention

Two types: Specific deterrence and General deterrence

Question 10

What is an example of general deterrence?

Answer 10

American actor Wesley Snipes was sentenced for being a public figure and being made an example of so other people can look at them and not do the same

Question 11

Describe the Rehabilitation goal of sentencing

Answer 11

The attempt to reform a criminal offender. Rehabilitation seeks to bring about fundamental changes in offenders and their behaviour
-Goal: reduce future crime

Then: 1930s: rehabilitation through therapeutic intervention. 1970s: nothing works
Now: “what works” CBT (ABC technique, activating events leads to beliefs which leads to consequences)

Question 12

What is Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)?

Answer 12

one of the most successful and widely employed forms of psychotherapy. Used to treat a variety of disorders

• Groups rather than individuals
• Our thoughts influence our feelings and behaviour - so if we can change our thinking we can change problematic behaviour patterns
• ABC technique

Question 13

What is ABC technique?

Answer 13

Activating events lead to beliefs which lead to consequences

-The client works to understand this relationship then reframes the situation to re-interpret the situation in a more realistic way

Question 14

Describe the Restoration goal of sentencing

Answer 14

Attempts to make the victim “whole again”

• seeks to restore the victim which focuses on restitution payments that offenders are ordered to make
• Focuses on the victim

Question 15

What are orders that can be made beyond sentencing?

Answer 15

Continued detention orders: allow some offenders to be detained after the end of their sentence if they are regarded as a serious risk

Question 16

What are different things we can predict in terms of whether an offender will pose a serious risk to society?

Answer 16

(1) Dangerousness (2) Risk of offending or risk of offending in a particular way

Question 17

What are different predictions that can be made?

Answer 17

Risk of offending: predicting likelihood of occurrence

Dangerousness: predicting likely consequences of offending - how “serious” the offence

Question 18

At what point are risk assessments conducted in the criminal setting?

Answer 18

Pretrial, sentencing and release

-very routine

Question 19

What types of prediction outcomes do we want?

Answer 19

We want to maximise true positives and true negatives but minimise false negatives and false positives

Question 20

What are the types of risk assessments that can be conducted with criminal offenders?

Answer 20

1. Unstructured clinical judgement
2. Statistical or actuarial assessment
3. Structured professional judgement

Question 21

Describe the unstructured clinical judgement approach to assessment

Answer 21

Decision characterised by professional discretion and lack of guidelines (subjective, no specific risk factors)

• studies show its poor
• No rules about how risk decisions should be made
  e. g. Dr Death

Question 22

Describe the statistical or actuarial approach to assessment

Answer 22

Decision-based on risk factors that are selected and combined based on empirical or statistical evidence

• Calculates risk by comparing the individual’s characteristics and those who we know have behaved in a certain way
• can be too statistical

Question 23

Describe the structured professional judgement approach to assessment

Answer 23

Provision of guidelines to help structure clinical decision-making can improve performance

• Judgement based on professional judgement
  e. g. hare’s psychopathy checklist revised

Question 24

What are the two types of risk factors?

Answer 24

Static (Historical, cannot be changed) e.g. age of first arrest
Dynamic (fluctuate over time, can be changed) acute vs stable
-Most predictable factors are static

Question 25

What is static, stable dynamic and acute dynamic?

Answer 25

Static (we can’t change)

Stable Dynamic (things that change over long periods of time e.g. antisocial and criminal attitudes etc)

Acute Dynamic (change quite rapidly e.g. level of intoxication that you have at that specific time and the mood you are in)

Question 26

What is the risk factor?

Answer 26

A measurable feature of an individual that predicts the behaviour of interest (e.g. violence or psychopathology)

Question 27

Explain the important risk factors

Answer 27

1. Dispositional
   - demographics (age <14 and gender, male)
   - personality characteristics (impulsivity, psychopathy)
2. Historical
   - past anti-social behaviour
   - age onset of antisocial behaviour
   - childhood history of maltreatment (physical abuse and neglect)
   - past supervision failure, escape
3. Clinical
   - substance use either directly (illegal activity) and indirectly (you might have to steal to support drug addiction habits)
   - mental disorder e.g. diagnosis of schizophrenia or affective disorders or threat/control override symptoms
4. Contextual (current environment)
   - lack of social support
   - easy access to weapons/victims

Question 28

What are some protective factors?

Answer 28

Factors that reduce or mitigate the likelihood of violence

Children/Youths
-prosocial involvement, strong social support, positive social orientation, strong attachment and intelligence

Adults
-employment stability (for high risk) and strong family connections (for low-risk males)

Question 29

What can protective factors explain?

Answer 29

Can explain why some individuals with many risk factors do not become violent vs those who do

Question 30

What are some protective factors to prevent recidivism?

Answer 30

Support from family
Mentoring
Employment

Question 31

What are routinely conducted in criminal settings?

Answer 31

Risk assessments are routinely conducted in criminal settings

Question 32

What are approaches that have been developed to assess risk?

Answer 32

These include unstructured clinical judgement, actuarial prediction and structured professional judgement

Question 33

What is Specific Deterrence?

Answer 33

seeks to prevent a particular offender from recidivism (repeat offences; based on operant learning)

Question 34

What is General Deterrence?

Answer 34

Seeks to prevent others from committing crimes similar to the one for which a particular offender is being sentenced by making an example of the person sentenced (based on social learning)

Question 35

What are the important risk factors?

Answer 35

1. Dispositional
2. Historical
3. Clinical
4. Contextual