Custodial sentencing - prisons

Question 1

what is meant by custodial sentencing ?

Answer 1

• this involves a convicted offender spending time in prison, young offenders institution or psychiatric hospital for offenders

Question 2

what are the 4 aims of sentencing ?

Answer 2

• deterrence
• incapacitation
• retribution
• rehabilitation

Question 3

what is meant by deterrence ?

Answer 3

• the threat of an unpleasant experience serves to prevent the behaviour in the future

Question 4

what is meant by individual deterrence ?

Answer 4

• preventing the offender from commiting the same crime in the future

Question 5

what is meant by general deterrence ?

Answer 5

• to deter the rest of the population from committing the same crime

Question 6

what is meant by incapacitation ?

Answer 6

• the offender is taken out of society to prevent them from reoffending
• the need for incapacitation is dependant upon the nature of the crime

Question 7

what is mean by retribution ?

Answer 7

• society is enacting revenge for the crime by punishing the offender
• a crime has been committed and should receive a suitable punishment

Question 8

what is meant by rehabilitation ?

Answer 8

• prisons should provide prisoners with the opportunity to develop skills and training
• on leaving prison, offenders should be better adjusted and ready to retake their place in society

Question 9

AO3
what are the 3 psychological effects of institutionalisation ?

Answer 9

• stress + depression
• institutionalisation
• prisonisation

Question 10

AO3
stress and depression

Answer 10

• suicide rates are considerably higher in prison than in the general population
• incidents of self-mutilation and self-harm
• stress in prison = increase risk of psychological disturbance following release

Question 11

AO3
institutionalisation

Answer 11

• having adapted the norms and routines of the prison life, inmates may become so accustomed to these that they cannot function outside

Question 12

AO3
- prisonisation

Answer 12

• refers to the way in which prisoners are socialised into adapting and ‘inmate code’
• behaviours that may be considered unacceptable on the outside may be encouraged and rewarded in the institution
• e.g gang affiliation

Question 13

AO3
- what is recidivism ?

Answer 13

• reoofending, a tendency to relapse into a previous condition or mode of behaviour

Question 14

AO3
- main problem of recidivism

Answer 14

• UK alongside with the US have some of the highest in the world
• 2013 57% of UK offenders reoffended within a year of release
• so one of the aims (deterrence) is not working
• Norway has one of the lowest in the world and has a greater emphasis on rehabilitation