dealing with offending Flashcards
What are the 4 ways of dealing with offending?
Custodial sentencing
Behaviour modification
Anger management
Restorative justice
What is custodial sentencing?
Holding convicted criminals in a secure fascility like a prison, or a young offenders institution, or psychiatric hospital
What are the 4 aims of custodial sentencing?
Explain briefly
Deterrence- stop criminal reoffending, and stopping society
Incapacitation- protects society from criminals behaviour
Retribution- providing the sense that criminal has paid for crime
Rehabilitation- opportunity to learn new skills and behaviour, reform
What are the 3 psychological effects of custodial sentencing?
Explain briefly
Depression- feelings of helplessness in a frightening environment>stress, potential self harm
Institutionalisation- prisoners adapt to the prison environment>struggle to adjust to outside life
Deindividuation- prisons strip people out of their individual identity>aggressive behaviour
What is recidivism?
What could this be due to? (2)x2
When an offender re-offends after release
Institutionalisation or developing pro-criminal attitudes while in prison (differential association)
Could also be due to homelessness or drug addiction
One limitation of custodial sentencing is that recidivism is a large problem
PETC
E: UK study found that over 18 years, 77% of ex-inmates went on to reoffend
Prisons may not deter or reform, only incapacitate for the time they are in prison
T: Limits usefulness of custodial sentencing
C: Reoffending rates are higher for shorter sentences, it is only short sentences that are not long enough to deter or reform
One limitation of custodial sentencing is that its counter-productive
PET
E: With the implications of differential association, putting large numbers of criminals together reinforces pro-criminal attitudes and the sharing of criminal skills
T: Limits usefulness of custodial sentencing
One limitation of custodial sentencing is that its expensive
PET
E: UK 2020 cost per year is £42,000
Recidivism rates are high>better to try different approaches to protect society from offenders
T: Limits usefulness of custodial sentencing
One strength of custodial sentencing is that its socially acceptable
PET
E: Much of wider society will agree that offenders deserve long custodial sentences as an appropriate punishment, providing retribution for victims
Other approaches are criticised by being too soft
T: Increases the usefulness of custodial sentencing
What is behaviour modification?
Use of operant conditioning applied in prison token economy systems
Based on the behaviourist idea that desirable behaviour can be learnt
How does the prison token economy work? (3)
Offenders are rewarded for desirable behaviour (e.g. cleaning your cell)
Tokens (plastic disks) acts as secondary reinforcers, which can later be exchanged for primary reinforcers (e.g. chocolate)
Bad behaviour may result in tokens being taken away, acting as punishment
One strength of behaviour modification is that its easy to set up
PET
E: Does not need highly trained specialists
Effective way of dealing with offending behaviour within the prison environment, improving condititons for staff and prisoners
T: Useful
One limitation of token economy is that its limited outside prison
PET
E: Can only be used effectively in controlled settings e.g. prison
No long term effects in reducing recidivism
T: Limited
One strength of token economy is that there’s research support
PET
E: Psychologists developed a token economy system for young offenders at a residential school for delinquent males
There was a significant increase in appropriate behaviour in students taking part in the token economy programme with no improvement in the control group
T: Suggests token economy is effective
What is anger management?
Programme that assumes aggressive emotional responses are cognitive, which can be controlled with a form of CBT
Provides techniques offenders can use in future stressful situations
What are the 3 phases of anger management?
Explain briefly
Cognitive preparation
Skills acquisition
Application practice
What is cognitive preperation?
Offenders learn how to assess their own thoughts for triggers of irrational aggressive emotions
Examples from their lives are used and reinterpretated
What is skills aquisition?
Ways to control anger are developed, calming techniques to improve communication skills, to avoid conflict
What is application practice?
Therapist and offender play out role play scenarios that would have caused an aggressive response
Offender uses skills developed in skills aquisition to stay calm
One strength of anger management is that it can be applied outside prison
PET
E: 3 phases are accessible
This potentially helps prisoners retain employment and relationships
T: Improves QoL
One strength of anger management is that there’s research support
PETC
E: Psychologist tested a group-based anger management programme
Self report questionnaires were completed before and after the intervention
48% of the experimental group showed improvement on both measures
C: Research using self report often has the problem of social desirability bias, prisoners may hope for early release
One limitation of anger management is that its expensive
PET
E: Requires services of highly trained specialists who are used to dealing with violent offenders
Many prisons may not have the resources to fund such programmes, postcode lottery?
T: Not accessible IN prisons
What is restoritave justice?
Attempt to rehabilitate the offender by getting them to cognitively understand the effect of their crime on the victim and society
This can be directly with the victim, or paying them back
This restores what the offender harmed
What are the 2 features of restorative justice?
Meeting
Reparation
Explain meeting
Victim and offender take part in a meeting supervised by a trained mediator
This meeting is collabortive
Victim is given the opportunity to explain the criminal harm caused to them
Offender is encouraged to take responsibility
Explain reparation
Offenders demonstrates acceptance of responsibility by repaying
Could be cash, or community payment
Explain how restorative justice differs to the criminal justice system
CJS- seeks to determine guilt and impose punishment, harm to the state
RJ- concerned with reparing the harm caused by crime, harm to indiviudals and communities
One GENERAL strength of ways of dealing with offending is they’re not exclusive
PET
E: None are mutually exlusivr if all are somewhat effective they could be used in a holistic combined approach
T: Interactionist approach is best
One strength of restoritaive justice is that there’s research support
PET
E: 3 justice schemes found there was 14% reduction in recidivism
T: Useful
One limitation of restorative justice is that it depends on victim cooperation
PET
E: This may not be the cause, they might just go along to get a lighter sentence
T: Unuseful
One strength of restorative justice is that its flexible
PET
E: Unlike custodial sentencing, its not a one size fits all, programmes are flexob;e and covers a wide range of applications e.g. schools, hospitals
T: Useful
