DEALING WITH OFFENDER BEHAVIOUR: CUSTODIAL SENTENCING AO1 & AO3

Question 1

Custodial sentencing (CS)

Answer 1

• involves a convicted offender spending time in prison or another closed institution.
• There are four aims to CS- deterrence, incapacitation, retribution and rehabilitation.

Question 2

Deterrence

Answer 2

• works on two levels: general deterrence aims to send a broad message to society that criminal behaviour will not be tolerated and individual deterrence aims to stop recidivism.
• For example loss of privileges in prison and being put on the news may deter people from offending.

Question 3

Retribution

Answer 3

• is the notion that offenders should pay for their actions.
• Putting them in prison means that they are suffering the consequences of their criminal behaviour such as the loss of their freedom.

Question 4

Incapacitation

Answer 4

• Incapacitation is where the offender is taken out of society to protect the public.
• For example putting sex offenders into prison/solitary confinement means they’re no longer a threat to society.

Question 5

Rehabilitation

Answer 5

• aims to reform the individual and let them return to society as a functional member of society.
• For example, prisons should provide opportunities to develop skills and training or to access treatment programmes for problems such as anger management to help them reflect on their offending behaviour

Question 6

One limitation of CS is that it has negative psychological effects (e.g. stress and depression).

Answer 6

• For example, suicide rates are 15 times higher in prisons than in the general population.
• This suggests when you send someone to prison you’re putting their wellbeing at risk.
• Furthermore, Zimbardo’s study found participants suffering from severe mental breakdowns in a simulated prison, which isn’t even accurately reflecting real prison conditions/psychological effects.
• This shows that prisons are extremely damaging to psychological health, and therefore when attempting to reform an individual they are ultimately worsening
  their condition.

Question 7

One limitation of CS is that it’s not effective as there’s high rates of recidivism.

Answer 7

• For example, Sutherland argued prisons are universities of crime, so when people go they learn better/more sophisticated crimes which shows prisons are obviously not working.
• Furthermore, 57% of people who come out of prison will reoffend in the first year.
• This suggests it’s not an effective tool as if they areeducated on their actions they are less likely to recommit, yet as the UK puts more emphasis on punishment rather than rehabilitation this will not occur

Question 8

One limitation of CS is that it does not reform prisoners.

Answer 8

• For example, in prison prisoners are exposed to other criminals (who could have committed more severe crimes) and so become exposed to greater numbers of procrime attitudes therefore they are unlikely to unlearn their norms and values and so continue offending.
• Furthermore, for some people prison is a deterrent yet for others life inside prison is much easier or have a status to uphold.
• Therefore, we can’t assume prisons work the same way for
  everyone, and so it doesn’t reform all prisoners

Question 9

One strength of CS is that it provides opportunities for training and treatment.

Answer 9

• For example, prisoners can upskill in prison as they have access to education/training.
• This increases the chance of getting a job and becoming better people which decreases the chance of recidivism. Adv prisons are an effective rehabilitative tool.
• Furthermore, anger management schemes give offenders insight into their behaviour and further decrease the chance of recidivism