Dealing with offending behaviour: custodial sentencing

Question 1

§What are the 4 main aims of custodial sentencing?

Answer 1

Deterrence, incapacitation, retribution and rehabilitation.

Question 2

What is custodial sentencing?

Answer 2

Involves a convicted offender spending time in prison or another closed institution such as a young offender’s institute or psychiatric hospital.

Question 3

What is recidivism?

Answer 3

Refers to re-offending.
Recidivism rates in ex-prisoners tell us to what extent prison acts as an effective deterrent.

Question 4

What is the aim of deterrence?

Answer 4

Unpleasant prison experience is designed to put off the individual- or society at large from engaging in offending behaviour.

Question 5

What is the aim of incapacitation?

Answer 5

The offender is taken out of society to prevent them from reoffending as a means of protecting the public. The need for incapacitation is likely to depend upon the severity of the offence and nature of the offender.

Question 6

What is the aim of retribution?

Answer 6

Society is enacting revenge for the offence by making the offender suffer, and the level of suffering should be proportionate to the seriousness of the offence.

Question 7

What is the aim of rehabilitation?

Answer 7

Offenders should leave prison better adjusted and ready to take their place back in society.
Prison should provide opportunities to develop skills and training or to access treatment programmes

Question 8

What are the three main psychological effects of custodial sentencing?

Answer 8

STRESS AND DEPRESSION
INSTITUTIONALISATION
PRISONISATION

Question 9

How is stress and depression affected by custodial sentencing?

Answer 9

Suicide rates are considerably higher in prison than in the general population, as are incidents of self harm.
Stress of prison experience increases risk of developing psychological disorders following release.

Question 10

Why is institutionalisation a psychological effect of custodial sentencing?

Answer 10

Having adapted to the norms and routines of prison life, inmates may become so accustomed to these that they are no longer able to function on the outside.

Question 11

Why is prisonisation a psychological effect of custodial sentencing?

Answer 11

Refers to the ways in which prisoners are socialised into adopting an inmate code
Behaviour that may be considered unacceptable in the outside world may be encouraged and rewarded inside the walls of institution.

Question 12

What has the rate of recidivism been in recent years?

Answer 12

45%

Question 13

What are the rates of reoffending in US, Australia and Denmark?

Answer 13

In excess of 60%

Question 14

What are the rates of reoffending in Norway?

Answer 14

20%

Question 15

(Shirley 2019)?

Answer 15

Claims that offenders who take part in college education programmes are 43% less likely to reoffend following release, and that prisons who offer these programmes report fewer incidents of violence.

Question 16

A weakness of custodial sentencing is…

Answer 16

Prison Reform Trust (2014) found that 25% of women and 15% of men in prison reported symptoms of psychosis (e.g. schizophrenia) so oppressive prison regimes may be detrimental to psychological health which could impact on rehabilitation (not including those experience psychosis prior to incarceration).

Question 17

A weakness of custodial sentencing in regards to the prison environment

Answer 17

Bartol (1995) has suggested that, for many offenders, imprisonment can be “brutal, demeaning and generally devastating”.