AC 2.2- Discuss the Aims of Punishment

Question 1

What are the 6 aims of punishment?

Answer 1

Retribution, rehabilitation, deterrence, public protection/incapacitation, reparation, denunciation

Question 2

Where are the aims of punishment laid out?

Answer 2

Section 42 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003

Question 3

What is meant by retribution?

Answer 3

Based on idea that offenders deserve punishment, can be seen as revenge, e.g. the death penalty for murder fulfilling the biblical idea

Question 4

What is meant by just desserts?

Answer 4

Getting what you deserve, offender should be punished for breaking the moral code

Question 5

What is meant by proportionality?

Answer 5

Punishment should fit the crime

Question 6

How does an offenders sentence change if found to be a hate crime and how does this link to retribution?

Answer 6

Sentence for assault is usually 6 months, becomes 2 years if motivated by hate, public want harsher punishment that reflect the reason of the crime (GBH can go from 5 to 7 years)

Question 7

How are crimes punished in other countries?

Answer 7

Saudi Arabia uses beheading and stoning to death, some US states use the death penalty, Indonesia use chemical castration for pedophiles’

Question 8

How does retribution link to right realism?

Answer 8

Believe crime is a rational choice, offender weighs up cost v benefit, therefore punishment will deter people and protect the victim

Question 9

How does retribution link to functionalism?

Answer 9

Durkheim, crime is inevitable, harsh punishment can act as a general deterrent, boundary maintenance reminds us of whats right and wrong

Question 10

How can we criticize the idea of retribution?

Answer 10

No focus on the root causes of crime (LR), doesn’t think about future offenders only looks backwards, can lead to miscarriages of justice and ethical issues, could displace crime, too traditional

Question 11

What is meant by rehabilitation?

Answer 11

Hopes to change the offenders behaviour and reintegrate them back into society, help them realise their mistakes and apologise

Question 12

What are some types of rehabilitation?

Answer 12

community sentence, probation orders, drug treatment and testing order

Question 13

How do cognitive theories link to rehabilitation?

Answer 13

Favour behaviour modification treatments like anger management to extinguish undesirable behaviors and stop thinking errors

Question 14

How does Eysenck’s personality theory link to rehabilitation?

Answer 14

favor the use of aversion therapy to deter offending behavior

Question 15

How does operant conditioning link to rehabilitation?

Answer 15

Supports the use of token economies to encourage prisoners to produce more acceptable behavior

Question 16

How do left and right realism link to rehabilitation?

Answer 16

Left realism favors rehabilitation as they want to tackle the root cause of crime and stop reoffending right realist favor punishment and believe if a person if a person has committed a crime they should be punished

Question 17

How can we critically evaluate rehabilitation?

Answer 17

Marxist say it shifts responsibility onto visual offenders rather than why capitalism causes crime, doesn’t work for all crimes and depends on the criminal, no retribution and seen a soft justice lack of just desserts, expensive

Question 18

What is meant by deterrence?

Answer 18

Can be individual or general individual is punishment on the offenders eg conditional discharge general deterrence stops the wider public from offending as they see the consequence of crime eg mandatory minimum life sentence for murder

Question 19

How do statistics show that prison does not act as a deterrent?

Answer 19

46% of adults are re convicted in the year increased to 59% for sentences more than 12 months

Question 20

Which theories do the statistics on recidivism link to?

Answer 20

Sutherland, learned through imitation and socialization universities of crime, Bandura vicarious reinforcement and role models

Question 21

How do the sentences and the 2011 London riots link to deterrence?

Answer 21

Four times longer sentences for property crimes more convictions in the summer of 2010, Ursula Nevis jailed for five months for accepting looted pair of shorts

Question 22

How does deterrence link to Marxism?

Answer 22

Used to control the proletariat, doesn’t act for the upper class as law enforcement is selective

Question 23

How does deterrence link to Right Realism?

Answer 23

Crime is a rational choice therefore can be deterred, situational crime prevention strategies, making an area harder to commit crime in e.g. CCTV and bollards

Question 24

How does social learning theory link to deterrence?

Answer 24

Would be offenders see a model of their peers being punished therefore are less likely to imitate that behavior (vicarious reinforcement)

Question 25

What are the criticisms of deterrence?

Answer 25

High recidivism rates, assumes that offenders know the punishment, assumes offenders are always rational, people follow the law because they believe it is right to do so

Question 26

What is meant by public protection/incapacitation?

Answer 26

Protect us from dangerous criminals, keeping them off the street and limiting their freedom

Question 27

What was brought in under the Crime Sentences Act 1997?

Answer 27

Courts must impose life imprisonment on a second time serious offence e.g. murder, rape

Question 28

What is meant by an intermediate public protection sentence (IPP)?

Answer 28

Offender is not given time limit on sentence, kept behind bars until they are sure they won’t reoffend

Question 29

How does incapacitation link to Lombroso’s theories?

Answer 29

Certain activistic features make you a criminal, no point in trying to help offenders should instead keep them off the street

Question 30

How does incapacitation link to right realism?

Answer 30

Believe in getting tough on crime, crime is choice and better to get criminals off the street as they know the cost and benefits of crime

Question 31

What are the criticisms of incapacitation?

Answer 31

Longer sentences and warehousing of offenders, strategy of containment/risk management doesn’t deal with the causes, imprisons based on past offenses as well as making future assumptions

Question 32

What is meant by reparation?

Answer 32

Offend making amends for the wrong either to the victim or society as a whole

Question 33

What are some examples of financial compensation?

Answer 33

Unpaid work, paying the costs of damage, compensation order

Question 34

What is meant by restorative justice?

Answer 34

Offender and victim meet, can hear both sides of the story and defender can apologize, gives Peace of Mind to both sides

Question 35

How does reparation link to labeling theory?

Answer 35

Favors restorative justice as a way of integration, by showing genuine remorse this stop secondary deviance

Question 36

How does reparation link to functionalism?

Answer 36

Durkheim, argues reparation helps put things back to how they were before crime was committed

Question 37

What are the criticisms of reparation?

Answer 37

May not work for all offenses e.g. violent or sexual crimes like rape or murder, regarded as too, soft letting off offenders lightly