History of Punishment Flashcards
What are the arguments for and against the death penalty?
AO1
FOR:
- Acts as a deterrent reoffending and for other people considering the crime - works as a form of social control
- Fits the crime - eye for an eye
- Complete incompacitation: can never do it again
AGAINST:
- Biases in the CJS - ethnic minorities and WC would be disproportionately targetted
- The CJS makes mistakes - can lead to innocents being killed. These cases are often quite high profile - killing someone could make matyrs especially if they are found to be innocent
- Very little evidence that it works as a deterrent - crime still happens in countries that have it
What are the 4 aims of punishment?
AO1
- Deterrence: makes an example of criminals and acts as a reminder of the repercussions of breaking the law e.g. stocks and pillory, prison, death penalty
- Incapacitation: physically removing individual’s ability to reoffend e.g. death penalty, cutting hands off thieves, prison
- Retribution: victims get justice and closure as society reacts to individual going against them and gets revenge e.g. fines for theft, death penalty
- Rehabilitation: aim to reintegrate offender back inot law abiding society e.g. court mandated therapy, speed awareness courses
How does Durkheim believe crime has changed?
AO1/2
Pre-industrial society: retributive justice
- Society was built on more ‘tight knit’ communities with greater social cohesion
- Thus when a crime was committed it wasn’t just against the victim but society as a whole
- As the desire for vengeance was communal the punishment needed to be visible
- e.g. in the 18th Century public hanging was the punishment for over 200 crimes including murder, pickpocketing, and treason
Post-industrial society: restitutive justice
- Society today has less social cohesion and a specialised division of labour
- Society is allowed to continue functioning while justice is served quickly and individually
- e.g. by 1900 90% of crimes were punished by prison, public hanging abolished in 1965
How has the prison population changed since the 90s
AO1
- 60,000 in 1997
- 77,000 in 2006
- 83,000 in 2007
- 95,000 in 2023
- 2024: New Labour Gov has decreased minimum amount of sentence to be released early from 50% to 40% due to overcrowding on the back of the Southport riots
What is Matthews’ view of prisons?
AO1/2
- Prisons act as “universities of crime”
- They are just an “expensive way of making people worse”
- Usually have a high proportion of addicts/mentally ill people
- Resources are stretched so there’s no rehabilitation for these people
- Thus the reasons for offending aren’t addressed
What is Solomon’s view of prisons?
AO1/2
- People are being imprisoned for minor offences
- Thus prisons aren’t fit for purpose as they do nothing to rehbilitate offenders
How do Moran’s findings analyse Matthews and Solomon?
AO3
- 75% of ex-inmates reoffend within 9 years
- 40% reoffend within 12 months
What is Durkheim’s view of punishment?
AO1
- Reaffirms boundaries of right and wrong
- Creates social cohesion and value consensus of acceptable/unacceptable behaviour and society should respond
- Form of social control which prevents anomie
- Safety valve: shows us where the line is drawn so we can turn to deviant non-criminal behaviours rather than crime
- Society now uses restitutive justice - allows the specialised division of labour to continue functioning smoothly as people can go on with their lives knowing justice has been served
What is the general marxist view of punishment?
AO1
- Exploits the proletariat: disproportionately targets the WC - in the USA they are used as cheap labour to mass produce goods and in the UK prisoners are excluded from the National Minimum Wage Act
- Protects bourgeois interests: maintains private property by punishing people harshly for theft
- Fines: disproportionately target the WC as the rich can pay them off and the money goes back to the government which in turn funds the capitalist economy making it look more successful than it is
- Prisons are the main form of punishment under capitalism
- Settlements outside of court - the rich don’t have to show up to school e.g. Prince Andrew and Donald Trump
- Bail: the rich can easily pay this off e.g. Young Filly paying off his $100k AUSD bail
What Marxist sociologists talk about prisons?
AO2
- Althusser: prisons are a repressive state apparatus - enforces bourgeoisie norms and values through fear of force, threat, or coercion
- Melossi and Pavarini: capitalism puts a price on workers’ time - to ‘do time’ is to ‘pay for’ their crime. Also draw comparison between the environments of prisons and factories - both have strict disciplinary
- Downes: prisons soak up about 30-40% of the unemployed so it’s beneficial for capitalism
How has government impacted prisons since the 90s?
AO3
- New Labour 1997: vouched to be “tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime” (Tony Blair) - led to harsher punishments on minor crimes which increased the prison population
- 2010 Coalition Government’s austerity caused it to decrease due to their being less police
- Starmer’s Labour 2024: has seen the highest rates of prisoners ever to the point that they have had to release many early after only 40% of their sentence
How can we analyse prisons being in poor conditions?
AO3
- In 2000 Zahid Mubarak was sentenced to 90 days imprisonment for stealing from cars. On the 89th day of his sentence he was battered and killed with a table leg by his cell mate Robert Stuarts who was a racist psychopath. They were in the same cell due to understaffing and overcrowdedness
- Carrabine et al: current prisons create problems with food, sanitation, education, and work opportunities
What do sociologists say about who ends up in prisons?
Sayer, Gordon, Cicourel, Heidensohn, Garland, Davis
AO2/3
- Sayer: the rich can take advantage of loopholes and escape punishment e.g. Bernie Eccleston avoiding tax from 1993-2023 and simply paying the $807mil fine due to his $2.96bil networth
- Gordon: crime is the most rational response to WC oppression so the proletariat end up in prisons
- Cicourel: selective law enforcement - police typification of criminals = young WC ethnic minority boys so they are overpoliced and end up in prisons
- Heidensohn: men are in prison more because women are more controlled - in the home, at work, and in public
- Garland: the CJS doesn’t imprison individuals but rather causes the “systematic imprisonment of whole groups … young black males
- Angela Davis: “prisons don’t disappear social problems they disappear human beings“ - hides problems like homelessness, unemployment, addiction, mental illness, and illiteracy
What is transcarceration?
- People going from one institution to another their whole life
- e.g. young offenders institute to mental hospital to prison
What is institutionalisation?
- Prisoners becoming used to life in prison
- Now unable to adapt to life outside
