AC2.3 Assess How Forms of Punishment Meet the Aims of Punishment Flashcards
What aims does imprisonment meet? How does it meet each aim?
Retribution - The offender has their freedom taken away.
Prisoners serving life prison sentences never regain their freedom fully, even if they’re released they will always be monitored.
Public protection - Takes dangerous offenders away from society so that they cannot harm the public.
Rehab - Prisoners can be released early for good behaviour and spend the rest of their sentence in the community subject to supervision and conditions.
Deterrence - The threat of taking away someones freedom can dissuade them from offending or reoffending.
What aims does imprisonment not meet?
Reparation
Rehab - High recidivism rates suggests that rehab is not effective within a prison.
What aims do community sentences meet?
Retribution - Punishes through unpaid work. Combines punishment and activities.
Rehabilitation - Tries to change offenders behaviour and prevent further offending. Community sentences are proven to be more effective than a 1 year prison sentence - 8.3% more effective.
Reparation - unpaid work. The offender is giving pack to their community by bettering it.
What aims do community sentences not meet?
Deterrence - Punishment can be seen as lenient.
Public Protection - Offender works within the community.
Do fines work/meet the aims of punishment?
Reparation - Offender has to pay for their crime.
Possibly a deterrent - if you fail to pay the fine then there is a possibility of going to jail.
Retribution - Required to pay a sum of money for your actions which people usually don’t want to do.
What aims do fines not meet?
Deterrence and retribution - According to the Mirror Newspaper, 61% of fines are written off or remain uncollected (Moss, 2015)
What aims does discharge meet?
Deterrence - If a conditional discharge is given out, then the offender may not want to reoffend because of the risk of going to prison.
Do discharges work?
A discharge is dependent on the individual.
One person might be impacted by the experience of going to court so they are not likely to reoffend - discharge is punishment enough.
However, another person might be impervious to the experience of court so are likely to reoffend.
