AC 2.2 Discuss the Aims of Punishment Flashcards
What are the 6 aims of punishment?
Deterrent, Retribution, Rehabilitation, Reparation, Protection Public, Denunciation
What act do the aims of sentencing come under?
Criminal Justice Act 2003
Outline deterrent and give examples
- Discourage people from committing crimes (general and individual)
- Examples
- Giving harsher punishments during London Riots 2011
- Harsher punishments to role models/celebrities (Ant + David Beckham)
What theories does deterrent link to? (H)
- Right Realism = Rational Choice Theory, rational actors, weigh up costs and benefits before committing crime, harsh punishments is a bigger cost so may see as not worth it + Situational Crime Prevention via target hardening
- Social Learning Theory = seeing someone else punished deters you (vicarious)
- (H) High recidivism rates after prison contradicts this. Maybe offenders don’t think about sentence, only what their chance of getting caught is
Outline Retribution and give examples
- Punish people for their crime, “eye for an eye”, get just desserts
- Examples
- Harsh custodial sentence
- Large fines
- loads of examples, just where someone has been punished…
What theories does Retribution link to?
- Right Realism = rational actors, responsible for their crime, society take equal revenge
- Functionalism (Durkeim) = the moral outrage from society ensures boundary maintenance by reminding everyone of right + wrong
Outline Rehabilitation and give examples
- Change offenders mindset away from criminality, address the issues that caused them to commit crime to prevent it in future
- Examples
- Education and training programmes - prisoners not unemployed on release, money…
- Anger management courses - e.g. Aggression Replacement Training (ART) + CBT
- Specialist drug + alcohol dependency programmes
- In the community - Banger Car Racing (4 in 50 car thieves re-offended)
What theories link to Rehabilitation? (Hint: Individualistic, Sociological, Criticisms)
Individualistic
- Cognitive theories = suggests use of CBT to correct faulty thinking and biases causing crime
- Eysenck’s Crim Personality = aversion therapy
- Skinner’s theory Operant Conditioning = Token Economies make behaviour more socially acceptable
Sociological
- Left Realism = unemployment, education and poverty are causes of crime so addressing these issues will reduce crime
Criticisms
- Right realism = rehabilitation is limited because many will still choose to re-offend
- Marxism = rehabilitation shifts the blame for the crime onto offender, instead should be focusing on how capitalism forces some people to commit crime
Outline Reparation and give examples
- Offender makes up for the crime by putting things back to how they were
- Examples
- Repairing damage/returning property
- Unpaid work
- Financial payments
- Restorative justice
What theories link to Reparation?
- Labelling theory = restorative justice helps to reintegrate them back into society and remove the label so escape the deviant cycle and self-fulfilling prophecy
- Functionalism (Durkheim) = restorative justice is essential for smooth functioning society in our complex world
- (H) Can’t always be done become some crimes are victimless e.g. selling drugs, or irreversible injuries
Outline Protection of the Public and give examples
- Keep society safe by incapacitating the offender from committing further crimes
- Examples
- Prison
- Electronic tag - not go near V
- Exclusion orders e.g. football hooligans
- Chemical castration - sexual offenders
What theories link to Protection of the Public? + criticisms
- Biological theories = Lombroso says criminals are biologically different so would be impossible to rehabilitate them, therefore best alternative is chemical/surgical castration and sending offenders to islands away from public for protection
- Right Realism = a small amount of offenders are responsible for most crimes so by incapacitating them with long sentence we protecting society
- Criticisms
- Not enough room in prisons, effects of putting lots of serious criminals together
- Unjust, keeping them locked away based off assumption will commit further crimes
- IPP (Imprisonment for Publis Protection) was against human right freedom to have no definitive release date - scrapped 2012
Outline Denunciation and give an example
- Reinforce the moral and ethical codes and boundaries within society to make it clear what society disapproves of. Aims to show the offender that the behaviour is unacceptable
- Examples
- Banning cigarettes in public places
What theories link to Denunciation?
- Functionalist (Durkheim) = social control achieves solidarity amongst society as all agree what’s acceptable and not
- Labelling theory = creates self fulfilling prophecy and deviant cycle
What Factors influence views on Punishment?
- Actions of Individuals and Pressure Groups
- Social Changes
- The Media
- New ideas in Education and Politics
Examples of Individuals and Pressure Groups influencing views of Punishment
- E.g. Elizabeth Fry helped reforming prisons
- E.g. The Howard League for Penal Reform pressure the government to improve punishments
Example of Social Changes influencing the views on Punishment
E.g. Drink driving and domestic abuse used to be acceptable but are not now due to changes in society’s awareness and sympathy
Example of The Media influencing views on Punishment
E.g. Newspapers played a large role in influencing the public to be more aware of crime since 18th century - example in ending capital punishment and campaigns for tougher sentences for terrorists and paedophiles
Examples of New Ideas in Education and Politics influencing views on Punishment
- E.g. The Enlightenment created more humane attitudes
- Liberalism in 19th and 20th century led to more tolerant attitudes
- Socialism in 20th century gave greater sympathy to working class poor
- Left realism is influenced by socialism and right realism by conservative views
