AC 2.2 Flashcards
What is retribution?
- inflicting a punishment as revenge
- offender gets their ‘just desserts’
- ensuring fairness and justice that society wants
- punishment must be proportionate to the crime
What examples of punishments match up with the idea of proportionality?
- non payment of tv license - fine
- murder - life for life ‘eye for eye’
What theory does retribution link with?
- right realists
- offenders weigh up pros and cons
- if they’re making this rational choice and choosing to offend, they deserve the harsh punishments
How can retribution be criticised?
- offenders deserve forgiveness, mercy, or chance to amend, not just punishment
- punishment must be inflicted even if no good will come from it
- who decides what is proportionate. for each crime, people have different opinions as to what constitutes to crime
What is rehabilitation?
- changing a person or their behaviour to prevent future behaviour
- assumes free will and we can do something about our behaviour
- establishes causes of behaviour
What are the policies included in rehabilitation?
- education and training programmes
- anger management courses
- drug treatment and testing orders
Which theories does rehabilitation link with?
- cognitive theories favour CBT to correct thinking errors
- eysenck’s personality theory favours the use of token economy to deter offending
- skinners operant condition support token economy to encourage ore acceptable behaviour
- left realists favour rehabilitation as it address the social problems that cause offending
How can rehabilitation be criticised?
- right realists argue rehab only has limited success and people often reoffend afterwards
- marxists criticise rehab for shifting the responsibility on the individual rather than capitalism
What are the two types of deterrence?
- individual deterrence
- general deterrence
Define individual deterrence?
a punishment that convinces an offender the offence isn’t worth the risks as the potential penalties are too high
Give an example of individual deterrence?
- Margaret thatchers ‘short, sharp, shock’
- plan in young offenders institution based on, if we make it a hideous experience they won’t repeat behaviour
- included marching, rigorous discipline, uniformity
Define general deterrence?
making an example of someone so that it puts the general population off offending
Give an example of general deterrence?
harsh prison sentences
Which theories does deterrence link with?
Right realists
- they see crime as a rational choice, where individuals weigh up costs and benefits of crime, severe punishments and high chance of being caught may put them off
Social learning theory
- if potential offenders see a ‘model’ being punished, they will be less likely to imitate their behaviour
How can deterrence be criticised?
- half of offenders reoffend within a year, suggests it does not work
- how do we decide how severe the punishment should be
- deterrence assumes offenders know the penalties
- deterrence assumes rational choice but behaviour may be a rash action based on emotion
- little evidence that Margaret Thatchers’ short sharp shock worked
What is incapacitation?
- protecting the public by stopping the offender from repeating their actions
Which law has been influenced by incapacitation?
incapacitation has influenced the crime sentences act 1997, introduced mandatory minimum jail sentences for repeat offenders
- automatic life sentences for 2nd serious SA
What did the Criminal justice act 2003 introduce?
the idea of imprisonment for public protection (PIP). This allowed the courts to give a sentence with no fixed release date to a dangerous offender
What types of punishment serve the incapacitation function?
- execution
- castration
- banishment
- foreign travel bans
- electronic tagging and curfews
Which theories does incapacitation link with?
- biological theories like Lombroso believe crime is biological, and nothing can be done to change behaviour, so incapitation is the only way of reducing their impact on society
- right realists favour because they see a small number of persistent offenders who have not been properly socialised so incapacitating them with long sentences will reduce the crime rate
How can incapacitation be criticised?
- costly - costs £37,543 a year to keep a prisoner in jail
- doesn’t deal with the cause of crime
- unjust - automatically assumes a person will reoffend
- long sentences lead to a rising prison population
What is reparation?
involves compensating the victim and making reparation with society in general
What examples of punishment meet the aim of reparation?
- financial compensation - pay to fix damaged property
- unpaid work - repairing the damage to society
- restorative justice - allows the victim a voice to explain the impact on their life
What theories link with reparation?
- labelling theory favours restorative justice as way of reintegrating offenders into mainstream society, preventing them from being pushed into secondary deviance, enables them to show genuine remorse and gain a new label
- functionalist, like Durkheim, putting things back to how they were before, is essential for the smooth running of society
How can reparation be criticised?
- may not work for all kids of offence, eg rape victims may not want to face their rapist
- some regard as too soft
