AC2.2 Aims of Punishment Flashcards
Retribution
- Offender deserves punishment for crime committed, moral vengeance where punishment is proportionate to offence.
- Focuses on justice and wrongdoers should ‘pay’ for their crime, “eye for an eye”.
- Links to idea of ‘just deserts’, punishment should fit crime.
-Links to Right Realism.
Strengths of retribution
- Satisfies public demand for justice as offenders ‘pay’ for their crimes satisfying public and victim.
- Reinforces societal norms as reinforces idea that certain behaviours are wrongs justice will be served when committed.
Weaknesses of retribution
-Moral ambiguity: focuses on giving offenders what they deserve, morally questionable, promotes revenge over justice.
-No reduction in crime
-Subjective: deciding what punishment to give can be subjective, inconsistent sentencing.
Rehabilitation
- Aims to reform and reintegrate offender into society, focus on changing behaviour.
- Encourages offenders to address root causes of behaviour (drug addiction, anger issues)
- Involves treatment programmes
- Aimed at reducing recidivism (reoffending) by equipping offenders to live productive
- Links to Eysenck’s personality theory
Strengths of rehabilitation
-Reduces recidivism: addresses underlying cause of criminality, programmes help offenders reintegrate into society
-Promotes long term change: provides offenders with skills, education and therapy for positive changes.
Weaknesses of rehabilitation
-High costs: effective programmes such as education or therapy require substantial resources.
-Unreliable outcomes: no guarantee it will prevent reoffending
-Public perception: public see as too lenient especially for serious crimes, undermine publics confidence in the CJS.
What are the aims of sentencing?
- punish offenders
- reduce crime
- rehabilitate offenders
- protect public
- repatriate victims when needed
What is the aim of individual deterrence?
-To ensure an offender does not reoffend e.g suspended sentence, as imprisonment will occur if further crimes are committed.
- However, recidivism rate suggests prisoners are not deterred from crimes as reoffending rate is 42% within a year of release.
What is the aim of general deterrence?
- Prevent potential offenders from committing a crime.
- However, the impact of a sentence with a deterrent element is weakened by it relating to someone else.
- Links rational choice theory, assumes individuals outweigh costs and benefits before committing.
Strengths of deterrence - prevention of reoffending
- individual prevention - threat of further punishment is strong motivator for offenders to avoid committing future crimes, preventing recidivism.
- personal reflection - punishments gives offenders opportunity to reflect on consequences of actions, leading to behavioral change.
Strengths of deterrence of others
- General deterrence - knowledge that punishment will follow crime discourages others from committing, deters would-be offenders.
- Cost benefit calculation -potential criminals may avoid engaging in illegal activities if risks of being caught and punished outweigh potential rewards.
Public protection
- Punishment may serve purpose of protecting society from dangerous criminals.
- Through incapacitation, an offender is prevented from having their freedom.
- Examples include long prison sentences & electronic tagging which aim to punish individuals and protect public from serious criminals.
- Right realism
Strengths of public protection
- Immediate safety - incarcerating dangerous offenders, public protection ensures that individuals who pose a threat to society are removed from general population, reducing risk of harm.
- Long term security - measures such as long term imprisonment or life sentences prevent offenders from committing further crimes.
Weaknesses of public protection
- Overly punitive - some forms of pp can be too harsh, especially for non violent offenders
- Perpetuates harm - harm offenders from isolating them from society, increasing their risk of offending.
- Does not address root causes
Reparation
- Involves compensating the victim of a crime by ordering the offender to pay a sum of money to victim.
- Aims to ensure offenders ‘pay back’ and repatriate society by completing unpaid community work.
- Offenders can make direct repatriation through writing letters of apology, preparing any damage causes and explaining the event/reasons for crime face to face.
- Left realism
Reparation strengths
- Restores balance - allows offenders to compensate for any harm to the victim.
- Encourages responsibility - promotes sense of responsibility in offenders requiring them to take action to make amends.
Reparation weaknesses
- Limited scope - not possible to repair harm causes by certain crimes e.g murder.
- Offender compliance - offenders may lack resources to engage in meaningful reparative actions.
- Victim dissatisfaction - may feel actions are insufficient or that offender ‘gets off lightly’ compared to other forms of punishment like imprissonment.
