Custodial Sentencing Flashcards
Aims of Custodial Sentencing
1) Deterrence - Putting people off committing crime.
2) Incapacitation - Protect the public by removing offenders.
3) Retribution - Revenge against the offender.
4) Rehabilitation - Reform the offender.
Deterrence
Custodial sentencing involves a convicted offender spending time in prison, hospital or young offender’s institute.
1) Deterrence is based on conditioning principles (punishment and vicarious punishment):
- Individual deterrence - stopping future crime be committed by the criminal themselves.
- General deterrence - stopping the general public from committing the same crime by showing that the person is punished.
Incapacitation
1) Ensures that the offender is taken out of society which protects the public from further offending.
2) The need for incapacitation depends on the severity of the crime (e.g. society needs more protection from serial murderers compared to people who do not pay council tax).
Retribution & Rehabilitation
1) Society enacting revenge by making the offender suffer.
Level of suffering should be proportionate to the severity of the crime.
1) Reform of the offender (i.e. learns new attitudes and values and stops being an offender).
Prison should provide an opportunity to, for example, develop skills, access treatments (e.g. for addiction or anger) and reflect on crime.
Psychological Effects
1) Several psychological effects are associated with spending institutionalisation time in prison:
- Stress and depression - suicide rates and self-harm are higher in prison than in the general population.
- Institutionalisation - inability to function outside of prison having adapted to the norms and routines of prison life.
- Prisonisation - behaviours unacceptable outside prison are encouraged via socialisation into an ‘inmate code’.
Recidivism
About 45% of UK offenders reoffend within a year.
Recidivism refers to reoffending.
1) Rates vary with age, crime committed and country. The US, Australia and Denmark record rates over 60%.
2) In Norway rates may be as low as 20%.
–> This last figure is significant because in Norway there is less emphasis on incarceration and greater emphasis on rehabilitation and skills development.
Limitation of Custodial Sentencing
PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS
1) The Prison Reform Trust (2014) found that 25% of women and 15% of men in prison reported symptoms of psychosis
(e.g. schizophrenia).
–> This supports the view that oppressive
prison regimes may be detrimental to
psychological health which could impact on rehabilitation.
Strength of Custodial Sentencing
PROGRAMMES
1) Offenders who take part in college
education programmes are 43% less likely to reoffend following release.
2) This will improve employment
opportunities on release, which reduces likelihood of reoffending.
–> This suggests prisonmay be a worthwhile experience assuming offenders are able to access these programmes.
Limitation of Custodial Sentencing
DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION
1) Sutherland’s theory of differential association stated that criminal behaviour is learned by being around criminals.
2) Therefore by being put in prison with other criminals people are more likely to learn other criminal behaviours.
Prisons can become breeding grounds for crime (drug smuggling, theft, rape).
–> Undermine attempts to rehabilitate prisoners and consequently may make reoffending more likely.
Limitation of Custodial Sentencing
LABELLING
1) Person is often labelled as a criminal for the rest of their lives, even if their sentence is short.
–> This labelling could make it difficult for them to resume a normal life, maintain healthy relationships or keep a job.
Limitation of Custodial Sentencing
EXPENSIVE
1) It is very expensive to house, clothe, feed and rehabilitate a prisoner.
Some argue that the money allocated for imprisonment could be better served somewhere else (e.g. crime prevention - CCTV)
