AC 2.2 Discuss the aims of punishment

Question 1

What act defines the aims of sentencing?

Answer 1

s42 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003

Question 2

What are the aims outlined by S42 of the criminal Justice act 2003

Answer 2

Punishment of the offence
Reduction of crime (deterrence)
Reform and rehabilitation of offenders
Protection of the public
Making reparations of offenders to persons affected by their offences

Question 3

What is retribution?

Answer 3

Paying back, vengeance for criminal act
Offender should be made to suffer for breaching moral code
Focused on past

Question 4

Evaluate retribution

Answer 4

Negative points
- Justice into a transaction
- Simplistic view - More difficult to consider mitigating factors - very little crimes are identicle and makes it harder to judge guilt
- Justice demands mitigating factors need to be considered valuably
- Collective responsibility ignored: criminals viewed as less than human
- Prioritisation punishment over justice e.g mentally ill person’s forced into prison not care - ⅖ people mentally ill who are in Prison

Question 5

Describe right realism and functionalism in relation to retribution

Answer 5

Right realism in relation to retribution:
RCT
Sentences make boundaries clear

Functionalism in relation to retribution:
Durkhiem: strengthen social cohesion + bring about reform/change

Question 6

What is rehabilitation?

Theory links

Criticisms

Answer 6

Punishment can be used to reform offenders so they no longer offend/go on to life a crime-free life
Focus on changing future behaviour rather than focus on past offences (retribution)
Policies include:
-Education and training programmes
-Anger management courses e.g ART
-Drug treatment and testing orders

Theory links

Cognitive theories - favour CBT to teach offenders to correct thinking errors that lead to criminal behaviour
Eysenck’s personality theory - favours the use of aversion therapy to deter offending behaviour
Skinner’s operant learning theory - supports the use of token economics to encourage prisoners to produce more acceptable behaviour

Criticims of rehabilitation:
Require want to change from offenders
Require expensive support e.g therapists
Support for reintegration needed
Right realists - argue rehab has only limited success, many offenders go on to re-offend even after undergoing programmers aimed at changing their behaviour
Marxists - argue rehab programmes shift responsibility of offending on individual failings, rather than how capitalism leads to people committing crime

Question 7

What is deterrence
What is recidivism rate
What theory does recidivism relate to
Bromley briefings statistics
2011 riots statistics
Right realism and deterrence
Public protection and incapacitation examples of laws

Answer 7

Deterrence

Put people off
Recidivism rate LINKS TO BANDURA SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY - imitation depends on whether the model is of a higher status than us and the consequence they receive, higher up’s in prison may not be punished for offending whilst inside so behaviour likely to be copied - Bromley Briefings prison fact file 2017 - 46% of offenders re-offend within one year of release. Those serving sentences of less than 12 months increase to 59%
2011 London riots: Crown courts sent 82% of those convicted to jail, compared with 33% in 2010

RIGHT REALISM + Deterrence - Individuals are rational actors, choosing to offend: severe punishment and easier to be caught acts as a deterrent - Situational crime prevention - target hardening can be used to make it harder to offend successfully and therefore also act as a deterrent

Public protection and incapacitation
-Punishment must be useful + worthwhile, protecting us from dangerous criminals
-Incapacitation: offender prevented from exercising their freedom
-Restrict offender: Curfew orders + electronic tag
-Chemical castration Alabama
-Punishment for theft in Sharia controlled area Nigeria = hand cut off

Question 8

What is restorative justice

Theory links

Criticism

Answer 8

Restorative justice

Theory links:
Left realist - reparation punishments provide practical measures to reduce crime and a way to produce long change towards a more equal society
Labelling theory - favours restorative justice as a way of reintegrating offenders back into mainstream society. By enabling them to show remorse, it permits reintegration and prevents secondary deviance
Functionalists - Durkheim argue that ‘restitutive justice’ - put things back to how they were before the crime was committed - is essential for the smooth functioning of complex modern societies

Criticism of restorative justice:
May not work for all types of offence. Reparation for property crime is easy, impossible for sexual crimes
Too soft of a form of punishment that lets offenders of suddenly