AC2.2

Question 1

What is a sentence and what is it based on?

Answer 1

a sentence is the punishment given to someone who has been convicted of a crime.
It is based on - harm done to the victim and how blame worthy the offender is - sentence reflects the crime, should be proportionate to the seriousness of the offence.

Question 2

What retribution?

Answer 2

inflicting punishment on an offender as vengeance for a criminal act. Justice should be measured in terms of fairness and proportionality. The more serious the offence the harsher the punishment. This is the closest we will get to revenge - society is morally entitled to take its revenge. Offender should be made to suffer for having breached society’s moral codes. (crime control)

Question 3

What theories link to retribution?

Answer 3

• Rational choice - assumes that people make rational choices by weighing up the costs and benefits.
• Right realism - Support this approach as it is being tough on criminals
• Functionalists - considers moral outrage and retribution performs essential in boundary maintenance.

Question 4

What element does retribution contain?

Answer 4

An element of revenge e.g. the longer prison sentences for causing death by dangerous driving.
or death penalty in place for murder in UK - abolished in 1965

Question 5

What are criticisms of retribution?

Answer 5

• argued that offenders deserve forgiveness, mercy or a chance to make offenders
• punishment has to be inflicted even when no good is going to come of it e.g. a remorseful offender
• how do we decide what is a proportionate penalty

Question 6

What is individual deterrence?

Answer 6

Punishment may deter someone from committing the same offence again e.g. 1980 crime control model of deterrence’s included juvenile detention centres in the UK to deter young offenders.

Question 7

What is general deterrence?

Answer 7

Tries to deter society as a whole from breaking the law, public punishment allows for people to see the punishment being applied and the general effect will teach everyone else a lesson e.g. floggings, hangings
Today public are likely to learn about the costs of offending form media report instead.

Question 8

What theories link to deterrence?

Answer 8

• Right realism - favour deterrence as does social learning theory.
• Rational choice theory - sees individuals as rational actors who weigh up the costs and benefits before deciding whether offending
• Situational crime prevention - Such as target hardening make it harder to commit and offences successfully and therefore act as a deterrent.

Question 9

What are criticism of deterrence?

Answer 9

• little evidence that short, sharp shook’s or boot camps reduce offending/recidivism as more that half young offenders re-offending within a year of release.
• deterrence assumes offender act rationally, objectively weighing risks before committing and offence.
• deterrence would suggest individuals are aware of punishment, but they may be ignorant of penalties.
• some people don’t act naturally, little evidence it works as most re-offend

Question 10

What is rehabilitation?

Answer 10

Punishment that aims to reform/change offenders behaviour, so they no longer reoffend and can be reintroduced back into society. Takes are more due process model of social control

Question 11

What does rehabilitation involve?

Answer 11

Uses education and training programmes, anger management courses and drug treatments and testing orders to treat alcohol dependence.
Community sentences often include requirements for offenders to engage in such programmes as part of their sentence.

Question 12

What theories does rehabilitation link to?

Answer 12

• Cognitive theories - Therapies such as CBT teach offenders to correct faulty thinking and biases that lead to aggressive or criminal behaviour.
• Eysenck’s personality - favours aversion therapy to deter offending behaviour.
• Operant learning theory - Rewards for good behaviour in the form of prison token economy
• Left realism - regard social factors (poverty, unemployment) as a cause of crime, addressing these needs will help to reduce offending.

Question 13

What are criticisms of rehabilitation?

Answer 13

• Right realists argue that rehabilitation has limited success, many offenders go on to reoffend after treatment.
• Marxists criticise rehabilitation shifts the blame onto the offender rather then the capitalist system that leads some people to offend.

Question 14

What is public protection?

Answer 14

Incapacitation- is the use of punishment to remove the offenders physical ability to offend again.
Today’s society uses incapacitation as imprisonment - it takes offenders out of society and prevents them from committing further crimes against the public.

Question 15

What do incapacitation policies involve?

Answer 15

• execution - preventing them from committing any further crimes whatsoever
• chemical castration - of sex offenders
• banishment - e.g. in early 19th century convicts were often transported to Australia
• foreign travel bans or driving bans
• curfew and electronic tagging - restricting offenders movements

Question 16

What did the 1997 Crime Sentences Act introduce?

Answer 16

A mandatory minimum sentences for repeat offender:
- auto life sentence for a 2nd serious sexual or violent offence
- seven years minimum for a third class A drug trafficking offence
- three years minimum for a third domestic burglary conviction

Question 17

What did the Criminal Justice Act 2003 introduce?

Answer 17

a idea of ‘imprisonment for public protection’, allowed courts to give a indeterminate sentence (no fixed release date) to a ‘dangerous’ offender who is convicted of certain serious violent or sexual offences.

Question 18

What theories link to public protection?

Answer 18

• Right realists - protects public from crime, a small number of persistent offenders are responsible for majority of crime, so incapacitating them will long prison sentences would significantly reduce crime.
• Biological theories - Lombroso said criminals are biologically different so cannot be rehabilitated. Brain dysfunction and biochemical explanation suggest not every condition can be treated and therefore incapacitation such as chemical or surgical castration are the only way to protect the public.

Question 19

What are criticisms of public protection?

Answer 19

• longer sentences and long term ‘warehousing’ of offenders with little hope of release, this increases prison population and associated costs.
• Incapacitation does nothing to deal with the cause of crime or to change offenders into law abiding citizens
• it is unjust because it imprisons them for crimes that the law assumes they may commit in the future.

Question 20

What is reparation?

Answer 20

Involves the offender making amend for the damage they have done whether to an individual victim, society as a whole or both.

Question 21

What amends can be done for material damage?

Answer 21

• financial compensation to the victim
• unpaid work in community e.g. removing graffiti

Question 22

What amends can be done for social damange?

Answer 22

involves the offenders recognising the wrongfulness of their actions - done through restorative justice schemes which bring offenders and victims together, often with the help of a mediator e.g. writing a letter of apology - this helps bring closure to the victim and reintegrate the offender into society

Question 23

What theories link to reparation?

Answer 23

• labelling theory - favour restorative justice as a way to reintegrate offenders into society by showing genuine remorse.
• functionalists - consider reparation as essential to the smooth running of society as it puts things back to how they were before the offence
• left realists - see it as a practical measure to reduce crime and promote long term change

Question 24

What are criticisms of reparation?

Answer 24

• may not work for all type of offences, reparation for violent and sexual crimes may be difficult to achieve
• some regard reparation as too soft of a form of punishment that lets offenders off lightly.