Dealing with offending behaviour Flashcards
What is meant by custodial sentencing ?
A decision made by a court that punishment for a crime should involve time spent in custody. This often involves the offender spending time in prison or young offender institutes
What are the 4 aims of custodial sentencing ?
Deterrence
Retribution
Incapacitation
Rehabilitation
What is meant by deterrence ?
The unpleasant experience of prison is used to put people off committing crimes to avoid this punishment. It works at 2 levels:
general deterrent - sends a broad message to members of a given society that crime won’t be tolerated
Individual deterrent - aims to prevent individuals from repeating the same offence in light of their experience of their punishment
What is meant by Retribution ?
Enacting revenge/ making the offender pay for their oftence by making them suffer and the level of this suffering should be proportionate to the seriousness of their offence. Its based on the biblical notion ‘eye for an eye’
What is meant by Incapacitation ?
The offender is taken out of a society so that they are physically unable to cause more harm which protects the public. The need to do this depends on the severity of their offence and the nature of the offender
What is meant by rehabilitation ?
The main objective of prison isn’t just to punish offenders but also to try and reform them. Upon release, the prisoners should leave prison better adjusted and ready to take their place back in society.
The prison should provide opportunities for skills and training sessions and also give them time to reflect on their sentence.
What are the psychological effects of custodial sentencing ?
Stress and depression
Institutionalisation
Prisonisation
What is meant by stress and depression as a psychological effect of custodial sentencing ?
Suicide rates are significantly higher in prisons than in society as are incidents of self- harm and self-mutilation. The prisoners are also at greater risk of developing psychological disorders following release.
The group at most risk is single young men in the first 24 hours of their imprisonment
The Howard League for prison reform reported 10,000 cases of self-harm in 2008
What is meant by institutionalisation as a psychological effect of custodial sentencing ?
The prisoners adapt to the norms and routine of prison life so find it difficult to adjust to real life upon releases so do not function properly
What is meant by prisonisation as a psychological effect of custodial sentencing ?
Refers to the way in which prisoners are socialised into adopting an ‘inmate code’. These behaviours may be considered to be unacceptable in the outside world but are encouraged and rewarded in prison
What is meant by Recidivism ?
Refers to the reoffending rates once released from prison. This tells us to what extent prison is successful as acting as a deterrent.
Often refers to reoffending rates a year after their release in the UK
What statistics show that Recidivism is increasing
- The prison reform trust reports that 46% of adults are reconvicted within one year of offence
- In recent years the overall recidivism rate has increased and is around 45% in the UK and over 60% in the US, Australia and Denmark but as low as 20% in Norway
What benefits do some prisons have on recidivism rates?
- Many of the prisoners will have access to education and training which will increase their chance of getting employed upon releasing meaning they have less reason to turn to crime
- The receive treatments like anger management training to reduce the chance of the offending again
If prisons offer things like this then recidivism rates should drop
What are strengths of custodial sentencing
P - Effective at rehabilitation when they offer education ad training
E - The vera institute of Justice claims that offenders who take part in college programmes are 43% less likely to reoffend following release and had fewer incidents of violence.
E - This shows that prison can rehabilitate offenders which can reduce the chances that they will reoffend in the future
L - Therefore, this shows that if the prisoners have access to education they may be able to adjust to society better which will decrease the chance they will reoffend which decreases recidivism rates
H - They are also taught many criminal techniques and create more criminal connections so are more likely to cary on committing crimes upon release as they have more criminal knowledge
H - However, a survey conducted by Onepoll (2015) found that in the UK 47% said that prison should be about punishment rather than rehabilitation and said that the current prison regime is ‘too soft’ indicating that it is not meeting the expectations of society
Weakness of custodial sentencing
P - Not effective form of punishment
E - This is because there are extremely higher rates of suicide and self-harm in prison than in the general population.
E - For example, the ministry of justice found that 119 people killed themselves in prison in England and Wales in 2016. This is nearly 1 every 3 days.
L - Therefore, this is not an effective punishment as it is not safe foe prisoners and is too physically and psychologically demanding for people to want to survive in there.
P - Not effective at rehabilitation
E - Prison reform trust found that 25% of women and 15% of ,men reported symptoms of psychosis.
E - This means that they cannot properly engage in any programmes offered to them and will find it much more difficult to readjust to society as they are suffering from psychological damage due to the conditions of the prisons
L - Therefore, custodial sentencing is not an effective way to rehabilitate offenders so they can readjust to society upon release as it does the opposite as it is common for prisoners to develop psychological issues like psychosis which make it hard for them to live a normal life after release
P - Not effective at rehabilitation
E- This is because the prisoners have been socialised around lots of other criminals which can lead to prisonisation as they may learn an inmate code which involves behaviours which are not socially acceptable. Similarly, they may learn more criminal techniques and gain more criminal connections whilst they are in prison
E - This means they leave prison with more criminal knowledge than before they went in and they are less likely to stick to any rehabilitation outside of the prison.
L - Therefore, this is a weakness as prisons may actually increase the recidivism rates as its giving criminals more criminal knowledge and connections which increases the chances that they will reoffend
What are behaviour Modification programmes ?
They are a way of dealing with offending behaviour and are designed to manage offenders behaviour whilst in custody to reduce re-offending when they leave.
They’re based on the behaviourist approach as they aim to encourage the learning and unlearning of criminal behaviours. It specifically focuses on the principles of operant conditioning by rewarding obedient behaviour and punishing disobedient behaviour in the hopes that it will become extinct.
Outline an example of a behaviour modification programme
Token Economy systems
- This involves prisoners receiving tokens for desirable behaviours which act as a secondary reinforcer as it holds no value in itself. They can then trade these tokens in for a reward which acts as the primary reinforcer. These desirable behaviours are operationalised beforehand to allow as much consistency in the system as possible. Similarly, the staff must undergo training to ensure they’re all awarding rewards in the same way and they also must inform the prisoners of the spring system so they know how many tokens various behaviours are worth.
- Before properly engaging in this system the token and reward must be given immediately after the desirable behaviour so that an association between the positive behaviour and reward can be established. If the prisoner engages in undesirable/disobedient behaviour then their tokens can be removed or withheld.
How would you design a Token economy ?
Operationalise target behaviours - Its broken down into component parts. They should be objective and measurable and must be agreed with prison staff and inmates beforehand
Scoring system - Staff and prisoners should be made aware of the scoring system and how many token each various behaviour is worth as the behaviours are hierarchical. The reinforcements should outnumber punishments by a ration of 4:1
Train staff - the prison staff need training to ensure they can implement the token economy system successfully. The aim is to standardise the procedures so that all staff are rewarding the same behaviours in the same way. The staff must also record when they award a token so the progress of the inmates can be assessed
Strengths of Behaviour management as a way of dealing with offending behaviour
P - Supporting evidence
E - Hobbs and Holt found that there was a significant difference in positive behaviours compared to the non-token economy group.
E - This Supports behaviour management as when desirable is rewarded and negative behaviour is punished, there is a decrease in the negative behaviour and an increase in positive behaviour.
L - Therefore, this is a strength because it is supporting the use of token economies which are a form of behaviour management and showing that they are an effective way to improve prisoners behaviours, therefore, increasing the credibility of this strategy
P- Useful
E - This is because using these behaviour management techniques can be effective on everyone even if they have behavioural problems
E - For example, Field et al found that token economy systems work on those with behavioural problems if they receive the reward more immediately and frequently
L - Therefore, this is a strength as this technique can be used on a wide group of people in the prison meaning its useful as its effective on nearly everyone.
Weaknesses of behaviour management as a way of dealing with offending behaviour
P - Not effective
E - This is only a short term strategy. For example, Cohen and Filipczak found that although reoffending rates were low in the first 2 years after release, after 3 years the recidivism rates went back to reflecting statistics
E - This is a weakness of behaviour management as it may reduce undesirable behaviours in the short term after they have been released from prison, however after 3 years the recidivism rates increase as the reoffending is likely to occur after 3 years
L - Therefore, behaviour management is not an effective way of dealing offending behaviour as its only effective for the first 2 years after release and after that the offending behaviour will return
P - Little rehabilitative value
E - This is because whilst they are in prison they are being rewarded for their positive behaviours however when they are released these rewards will stop.
E - Blackburn found that the positive behaviours are likely to be lost upon release due to the fact that the rewards will not be replicated in the real world so they will therefore, revert back to their old behaviour and re-offend
L - Therefore, behaviour management is not an effective form of rehabilitation as it doesn’t reflect the real world so when the rewards are stopped its likely that the original behaviour will return
What is anger management?
Anger management is a programmes created for offenders who committed they crimes out of anger. Its a type of CBT that aims to change the way that offenders perceive and react to situations in a hope to prevent them from committing crimes out go anger when they leave prison. It aims to change the way in which offenders think
What are the 3 stages in anger management ?
Cognitive Preparation
Skills Acquisition
Application Practice
(Calm people, should avoid, angry people)
What is cognitive preparation ?
This is when the therapist and patient will reflect on past experiences where they have lashed out due to anger and identify any possible triggers or cues for their anger.
What is skills acquisition ?
Offenders are introduced to a range of different techniques for them to use if they feel themselves in a triggering situation which can help to reduce their anger to prevent them from acting upon it. This can involve techniques like:
- Cognitive - Positive self-talk to encourage calmness
- Behavioural - learning to communicate feelings instead of acting out
- Physiological - deal with the physical reaction of anger using breathing techniques and meditation
What is skills acquisition?
Offenders are given the opportunity to practice their skills in a calm and controlled environment through things like role play where the therapist me reenact triggering situations
Strengths of Anger management
P - It aims to address thoughts that cause aggression so aims to tackle the root cause of the crime
E - This is a strength because it teaches the offender to change the way they think by changing their cognitive processes meaning that they are more able to deal with triggering scenarios out of prison in a more calm and appropriate way without resorting to violence
E - This means that these transferable skills learnt such as deep breathing can prevent them from committing another crime
L- Therefore, a strength of anger management is that it deals with the root cause of crime by teaching offenders ways to change their cognitive processes in triggering situations, preventing them from committing another crime out of anger.
P - Supporting evidence
E - Ireland compared the progress of 2 groups of offenders where 1 group took part in anger management programmes and the other didn’t (control group). They were assessed in 3 ways: through interviews, a behavioural checklist and a self-report questionnaire. He found that 92% of experimental group showed an improvement on at least one measure where as there was no improvements in the control group
L - Therefore, this shows that anger management is effective at improving the behaviour of offendersich increases the credibility of using these programmes
Weaknesses of anger management
P - Not as effective in the long-term
E - Blackburn suggests that it may have little impact n recidivism rates in the long run because application practice contains mundane realism as the situations are not real so the offender isn’t going to feel the same levels of anger as they would in real life.
E - This is a weakness as it may have no impact in the behaviours of the offenders in the long run meaning they’re likely to commit more crimes and end up back in prison
L - Therefore, this is a weakness as this is not a long term strategy to prevent more violent crimes from occurring
P - May not be effective in all cases as its dependent upon the commitment of the offenders who take part
E - This is because not all offenders will take it seriously meaning it will have little effectiveness.
E - This is a weakness because these programmes are very expensive to run so it would cost a lot to get no results out of the end if the offenders choose not to actively take part
L - Therefore, the effectiveness of these programmes is dependent upon the attitudes of the offenders and if they’re willing to properly take part
What is restorative justice ?
Is a method of reducing and atoning for offending behaviour through reconciliation between offender and victim. Its less about retribution (punishing the offender) and more about reparation (repairing the harm that they have caused) as it encourages empathy for the offender
2 main focuses are :
- the victim of the crime and their recovery
- the offender and their rehabilitation process
What does Braithwaite say about restorative justice ?
“Crime hurts, Justice should heal”
What are the 3 aims of restorative justice ?
- Rehabilitation of offenders
- Atonement for wrongdoing
- Victim/survivors perspective
How is restorative justice carried out ?
- Trained mediator supervises the meeting in a non-courtroom setting where the offender can voluntarily agree to take part
- can be face to face or over a call
- The survivor then confronts the offender about what they’ve done and the consequences that its had on them which allows the offender to see the real damage and consequences of their offence that they may not have realised
- There needs to be active involvement from both parties for it to be effective
- It focuses on positive outcomes for both
- Other people affected may have an input as well
- Can happen before or during sentencing and if it’s successful it could reduce a sentence
Who established the standards of restorative justice and what do they do?
The restorative justice council
It established clear standards for the use of RJ and supports survivors and professional specialists in the field
It advocates the use of RJ beyond dealing with crime. It can be used to manage and prevent conflict in many fields such as school and workplace
Economic implications of psychological research into offending / forensic psychology
- cost and effectiveness of treatments, custodial sentencing and other programmes to see which is more effective at reducing recidivism rates as it would be more economical to focus on the more effective methods
