AC2.2 Flashcards
Retribution
- The offender deserves punishment
- Society morally entitled to take revenge on an offender
- Punishment should fit crime
- Does not seek to alter future behaviour simply to inflict punishment in proportion to the offence – known as a backwards-thinking aim
Retribution Theories
-Right realists-retribution as a fitting method of punishment - the defendant is being punished to an appropriate level.
A right realist approach such as the rational choice theory- retribution assumes that offenders are rational actors who consciously choose to commit their crimes and are fully responsible for their actions.
-Functionalists-the moral outrage that retribution expresses performs the function of boundary maintenance.
Retribution Criticism
- It can be argued that offenders deserve forgiveness, mercy or a chance to make amends, not just punishment.
- If there is a fixed tariff of penalties, punishments must be inflicted even when no good will come from it. I.e., Remorseful offender who will commit no further crimes.
- Raises questions on how we decide what is a proportionate penalty for each crime.
Rehabilitation
-Tries to reform the offender and make them use free will so that they do not want to commit crime but rather conform to the rules of society
-Focus on treatment programmes to change the offender’s future behaviour by addressing those issues which led to them offending
-To include punishments that attempt to rehabilitate offenders:
Probation order with conditions i.e., unpaid work/attendance at a treatment centre
Restorative justice is a good example of offenders recognising that their offending is wrong
Rehabilitation Theories
- Individualistic theories see rehabilitation as a significant aim of punishment
- Behaviour modification treatments e.g., anger management courses focus on techniques to extinguish undesirable behaviours and promote desirable ones
- Skinner’s operant learning theory-use of token economies to encourage prisoners to produce more acceptable behaviour
- Left realism favours rehabilitation in they regard social factors such as unemployment, and poor educational opportunities as causes of crime.
Rehabilitation Criticism
- Right realists – Argue that rehabilitation has only limited success- many offenders go on to – reoffend
- Marxists also criticise rehabilitation programmes for shifting the responsibility for offending onto the individuals’ offenders’ failings, rather than focusing on how capitalism leads some people to commit crimes.
Deterrence
- Deterrence tries to discourage offenders from committing crime.
- Individual deterrence- Prevents crime by frightening an individual defendant with punishment. For example, in 1980 -Margaret Thatcher’s boot camp regime.
- General deterrence - Aims to prevent crime by frightening the public with the punishment of an individual defendant. For example, in the past public execution, now we hear about punishment through the media.
- Severity Versus Certainty- Severity of punishment and certainty of punishment (will they be caught for the crime)
Deterrence Theories
- Right realism favours deterrence as a means of crime prevention
- Rational choice theory –individuals are rational actors who weigh up the costs and benefits before deciding whether to offend. Severe punishments and a high chance of getting caught will deter offending.
- Social learning theory – offenders see a model being punished for offending, they will be less likely to imitate that behaviour
Deterrence Criticism
- There is little evidence that ‘shot, sharp, shock’ or boot camps reduce offending.
- Half of all prisoners reoffend within a year of release suggesting prison is not an effective deterrent.
- How do we decide how severe a punishment should be to deter would-be offenders?
- Deterrence assumes would-be offenders know what the punishments are.
- Deterrence assumes offenders act rationally not impulsively.
- People who break laws they see as unjust are unlikely to be deterred by punishment.
Public Protection
-Keeping society safe from dangerous people
The main method is imprisonment
There are also other policies i.e., foreign travel ban, curfews and electronic tagging
In the past we would have had execution, cutting of hands, chemical castration and banishment.
-The CJA 2003 introduced the idea of ‘imprisonment for public protection’. Allowed courts to give an indeterminate sentence to a ‘dangerous’ offender who is convicted of certain serious violent/sexual offences
Public Protection Theories
- Right realists may see the need to impose a sentence to protect the public, as social constraints on behaviour are weak
- Biological theories – Lombroso argues that criminals are biologically different from the rest of the population and it’s not possible to change or rehabilitate them
Public Protection Criticism
- Incapacitation leads to longer sentences and long-term ‘warehousing’ of offenders with little hope of release. This leads to an ever-rising prison population and associated costs (USA)
- Doesn’t deal with the causes of crime.
- It is unjust as it imprisons them for crime that the law assumes they may commit in the future.
Reparation
- Reparation involves the offender making amends for wrong doings
- Financial compensation to the victim – paying for the cost of repairing damage done to someone’s property. –Courts have the power to impose compensation orders on offenders
- Unpaid work – to make reparation to society through community payback e.g., removing graffiti from public buildings
- Restorative justice – making amends for the social damage done involves the offender recognising the wrongfulness of their actions. It allows the victim to explain the impact of the crime.
Reparation Theories
- Labelling theory favours restorative justice as a way of reintegrating offenders into mainstream society
- Functionalists argue that reparation helps to put things back to how they were before the crime was committed
Reparation Criticism
Reparation may not work for all types of offence – it works for damage to property or minor offences – but can reparation be made for sexual or violent crimes?
Some regard it as too soft a form of punishment that lets offenders off lightly.
