AC2.2 Aims of Punishment Flashcards
Retribution
Something done to get back at someone or the act of punishing someone for their actions. punishment inflected on someone as vengeance for a wrong or crime
example: death penalty for murder, as the punishment matches the crime.
Rehabilitation
- Restoring something to normal life though taring and therapy after there imprisonment. helping inmates grow and change allowing them to separate themselves from the environmental factors that made them commit crime in the first place.
example: educational resources
Training courses
Addiction therapy
Anger management
Deterrence, prevention of reoffending
aim of individual deterrence is to ensure an offender dose not reoffend. a suspended sentence is an example of this as imprisonment will occur if further crimes are committed. This is hoped to prevent further offending.
Deterrence, deterrence of others from committing similar crimes
Aim of general deterrence is to prevent potential offenders from committing a crime, this can be one by the use of harsh sentuses. however, the impact of a sentence with a detering element is weakened by looking at other case sentences
Public protection
The public should be protected from dangerous criminals. the criminal justice act 2003 allows the court to give extreme sentences where its necessary to protect the public. this helps o reduce fear of crime.
example: if a persons found guilty of murder court mast give the max life sentence. court may also choose to give life sentences to other serous crimes like rape.
Reparation
This involves the defendant making amends with the victim. this is commonly used with young offenders.
example: Making amends for social damage done involves the offender recognising the wrongfulness of their actions. This can be done through restorative justice schemes, which bring offender and victim together, often with the help of a mediator.
how Rehabilitation links to theory’s
- Individualistic theories of criminality see rehabilitation as a significant aim of punishment . They advocate various ways of changing offenders’ behaviour.
- Cognitive theories,favour behavioural therapies to correct offenders thinking errors and biases that lead to criminal behaviour.
- Eysenck’s personality theory, favours the use of aversion therapy to deter offending behaviour.
- Skinner’s learning theory supports the use of token economies to change behaviour and make it more acceptable
Rehabilitation Criticisms
- Right Realists argue that rehabilitation has only limited success, in that many offenders go on to re-offend even after undergoing programmes aimed at changing their behaviour.
- Marxists criticise rehabilitation because it puts all the responsibility on the person and does not put responsibility on the outside factors that affect the crime like capitalism
how Reparation links to theory’s
- Labelling theory favours restorative justice as a way of integrating offenders into mainstream society. By enabling them to show genuine remorse, it permits their reintegration and prevents them from reafending.
- Functionalists such as Durkheim argue that restitutive justice, to put things back to how they were before the crime was committed, is essential for the smooth functioning of complex modern societies.
Reparation Criticism
- Reparation may not work for all types of offence. Compensation for damage to property or miner offences may be fairly affective reparation.
- But it dose not work of serious offenses such as physical harm or sexually crims.
- Some people may consider reparation to be to week of a punishment ever for light offences
Public Protection links to theory’s
- Biological theories Lombroso argued that criminals are biologically different from the rest of the population and it is not possible to change or rehabilitate them. He favoured sending habitual criminal into exile, for example detaining them on islands away from the public.
- Other biological theories of criminality have favoured chemical or surgical castration to incapacitate sex offenders.
Public Protection Criticisms
- 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.
- Incapacitation is a strategy of containment or risk management. It does nothing to deal with the causes of crime or to change offenders into law abiding citizens.
- The ‘three strikes’ principle re-punishes individuals for their previous crimes.
It is unjust because it imprisons them for crimes that the law assumes they may commit in the future.
Retribution links to theory’s
- Retribution is linked to right realist theories of criminality such as rational choice theory. Like these theories, retribution assumes that offenders are rational actors who consciously choose to commit crimes and are fully responsible for their actions. They must therefore suffer the outrage of society for what they have chosen to do.
- For functionalist sociologist Durkheim, the moral outrage that retribution expresses performs the function of boundary maintenance. Punishing the offender reminds everyone else of the difference between right and wrong.
Retribution Criticisms
- 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, punishment has to be inflicted even where no good is going to come out of it, for example on a remorseful offender who will commit no further crimes.
- How do we decide what is a proportionate penalty or ‘just desert’ for each crime? People disagree about which crimes are more serious than others.
Deterrence links to theory
- Right realism favours deterrence as a means of crime prevention harsh punishments prevent people from choosing crime
- Rational choice theory sees individuals as rational actors who weigh up the costs and benefits before deciding whether to offend. Therefore, severe punishments and a high chance of getting caught will deter reoffending.
- Situational crime prevention strategies such as target hardening make it harder to commit an offence successfully and therefore act as a deterrent.
- Social learning theory is relevant to understanding general deterrence. It would-be offenders see a mode (one of their peers, for example) being punished for offending, they will be less likely to imitate behaviour.
