Effects of Imprisonment

Question 1

What are the 4 reasons for imprisonment ?

Answer 1

• Punishment
• Deterrence
• Public protection
• Rehabilitation

Question 2

How do Prisons punish offenders ?

Answer 2

• Locked in a cell
• Limited contact with outside world
• Few personal possessions
• Share a cell
• Restricted movements
• Strict schedules and rules

Question 3

How do Prisons work ?

Answer 3

• Stops crime being committed whilst imprisoned

- Takes away personal freedom to give ‘justice’ to society and the victim

Question 4

How does Prison have a negative impact on prisoners ?

Answer 4

• Restrictive and unpleasant experience
• Boredom and violence from other inmates
• Suicide risk is 4 times than the general population-paticularly in early parts of sentences

Question 5

How is prison used as a deterrent ?

Answer 5

• Works on behaviourist principles
• Prison is unpleasant- negative reinforcement to not commit crime
• Negative reinforcement of seeing someone else go to prison- deters the public

Question 6

Why do criminals reoffend ?

Answer 6

• Upon release many lost their jobs and support network- turn back to a life of crime
• Mental health issues

Question 7

What are the traits most prisoners have ?

Answer 7

• In care as a child
• Absence from school
• Poorly educated

Question 8

How is rehabilitation used in Prisons ?

Answer 8

• Programmes to reduce reoffending
• Training and skills, in preparation for employment on release
• Jobs keep them away from their old friends, provide income and reduce boredom
• Increases self esteem

Question 9

What did Gillis and Nafekh discover about rehabilitation ?

Answer 9

• Found 70% of offenders on employment programmers remained free during their conditional release
• Compared to 55% who weren’t on the programme
• Those who did return to prison – programme went back after an average of 37 months
• Compared to 11 months for the non-programme group.

Question 10

What was the Aim of Haney and Zimbardo’s study ?

Answer 10

• Investigate effect of being assigned to different roles – prison guard or prisoner.
• Done to critically evaluate whether the resulting attitudes and behaviour was due to situational or dispositional factors.

Question 11

What was the Sample of Haney and Zimbardo’s Study ?

Answer 11

• 24 male volunteers
• Responded to newspaper ad
• Paid $15 a day

Question 12

What was the procedure of Haney and Zimbardo’s study ?

Answer 12

• Mock prison was created
• IV was participants role
• DV was their behaviour
• All participants consented to play their role for 24 hours a day for a maximum of two weeks.

Question 13

How were prisoners treated in Haney and Zimbardo’s Study ?

Answer 13

• Only to by their number, not their names.
• Wore a loose-fitting smock.
• Not given underwear, had rubber sandals and were

Question 14

What were the results of Haney and Zimbardo’s study ?

Answer 14

• Participant behaviour was strongly affected by the role they had been given.
• They internalised the environment and their roles.
• They found the situation believable and it stopped being just an experiment.
• 90% of conversations were about their situation in the prison and not the outside world.

Question 15

What was the Pathology of power that Zimbardo proposed after the prison experiment ?

Answer 15

• No ‘script’ for how they should behave
• Took it upon themselves to engage in hostile interactions.
• The guards came to enjoy their position of power and control

Question 16

What was the pathological prisoner syndrome the prisoners experienced in Zimbardo’s study ?

Answer 16

• They moved from disbelief at the conditions, towards rebellion and then when this failed they acted out of self-interest and cohesion was lost.
• Some were ‘good’, siding with the guards
• Others were ‘sick’ showing signs of extreme emotional distress.

Question 17

What created prisoner and guard pathology in ZImbardo’s study ?

Answer 17

• Loss of identity- uniform and ID numbers for prisoners rather than names
• Arbitrary control – guards exercised power in random ways, based on guard’s mood
• Dependency and emasculation – style of the prisoners’ uniform, lack of underwear made them less manly. Needed permission to ask to go toilet

Question 18

What was concluded from Haney and Zimbardo’s study ?

Answer 18

• The behaviour of the participants explained by situational, not dispositional factors.
• Some individual differences between how people individually manage their social roles.
• Findings of the study should be used to inform guard training programmes.

Question 19

What is Restorative Justice ?

Answer 19

• Brings victim and offender together
• Victim is able to explain the impact of the crime on them to the person who did it.
• May also try to get an understanding of why they were targeted.
• Tries to recognise the needs of the victim of the crime -Give them peace of mind and regain a sense of control.

Question 20

What is the process of Restorative Justice ?

Answer 20

• Operates alongside the criminal justice system. Still punished
• The offender is expected to agree to actions suggested during the process
• Supervised by trained officials and can only go ahead if both sides agree
• Both sides bring supportive people, such as family or friends.
• Offender and Victim speak about how the crimes impacted them and their families
• A ‘contract’ is then drawn up and signed by both parties.

Question 21

How could Restorative Justice be counterproductive ?

Answer 21

• Potential to harm both the victim, who is meeting face to face with the person who has caused them harm
• The offender who could feel humiliated

Question 22

What showed Restorative Justice works ?

Answer 22

• Sherman and Strang (2007) found it works in property and violent crime as it is possible to identify a personal victim.
• Most effective for violent crime and burglary
• Was shown to reduce PTSD symptoms in the victim and reduce repeat offending by the burglar.