MT3 - Punishment, control and victims of crime Flashcards
Punishment - Functionalism - Durkheim
Punishment is expressive; it expresses society’s outrage at the offense.
There are two types of justice:
Retributive justice - Based on the punishment of the offender
Restitutive justice - Compensation for the victim/society
CRITICISMS OF DURKHEIM
Durkheim misunderstood the traditional societies as they did actually have restitutive justice.
Punishment - Marxism
Punishment is part of the repressive state apparatus as it maintains the existing social order.
The form of punishment reflects the type of economic base of the society, e.g. in capitalism, price is placed on workers’ time so criminals ‘pay for their crime’.
Types of punishment - Imprisonment
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Prisons have four main goals: Protect the public Punish criminal behaviour Reform criminals Deter other people from crime
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Many prisoners suffer from mental health issues, attempt suicide and commit suicide.
Alternatives to imprisonment - ASBOs (Anti Social Behaviour Order)
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Issued by local magistrates.
If an ASBO is breached it becomes a criminal matter punishable with a fine or imprisonment.
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Argues that community based controls do not deter young people from crime.
Alternatives to imprisonment - Parenting contracts and orders
Target the parents of unruly children.
Parenting orders are made by magistrates if a child is involved in anti social behaviour.
Alternatives to imprisonment - Curfews and dispersal orders
Ban children from public places.
The police have the power to break up groups of two or more.
Alternatives to imprisonment - Probation
Release into the community on the condition that they submit to the supervision and guidance of a Probation Officer.
Regular meetings – failure to comply leads to re-incarceration.
Alternatives to imprisonment - Fines
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A sum of money paid to the authorities by an offender as restitution for an offence for which they have been convicted.
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Continual use can devalue the effect e.g. with prostitutes, drugs. Can be seen as an “occupational hazard” or part of the costs of offending, and so means little. No imperative to reform behaviour, other than cost.
Situational crime prevention
There are two types of situational crime prevention measures:
Target hardening – e.g. locking doors and windows., not leaving valuables on view in the car, etc.
Surveillance – CCTV, security guards in shops.
CRITICISMS OF SITUATIONAL CRIME PREVENTION
Situational crime prevention measures don’t prevent crime, they displace it.
Environmental crime prevention - Wilson and Kelling
‘Broken window’ - A single broken window in a neighbourhood will lead to disorder as such neighbourhoods lack both informal and formal social control.
Social / community crime prevention
Aim to remove the conditions that predispose individuals to crime. They are long term strategies.
Promote employment as these policies aim to tackle the underlying causes of crime such as poverty.
Surveillance - Foucault
Surveillance refers to the monitoring of public’s behaviour for the purpose of controlling and preventing crime.
The Panopticon (prison thing)
Surveillance becomes self-surveillance, it rehabilitates offenders thus reducing/preventing future crimes.
CRITICISMS OF FOUCAULT
People get used to CCTV and their behaviour reverts to normal.
Surveillance since Foucault – synoptic surveillance - Mathiesen
Argues that today the media enable the few to see the many thus surveillance from below takes place.
He calls this the Synopticon – where everyone watches everyone.
CRITICISMS OF MATHIESEN
Synopticon and surveillance can not always reverse established hierarchies of surveillance.
Surveillance since Foucault – labelling and surveillance - Norris and Armstrong
CCTV operators make discriminatory judgements about who among the thousands of potential suspects they focus on.
Theories on crime prevention - Right Realism
The measures to reduce crime must focus on discouraging individuals from committing crime. If they do commit a crime, they must be punished for it.
Situational crime prevention – these methods are based on the rational choice theory explanation for crime.
CRITICISMS OF RIGHT REALISM
Ignore the wider social causes of crime such as poverty.
Theories on crime prevention - Left Realism
This approach recognises that there is a link between poverty and crime.
Left Realism would support the use of social and community crime prevention methods.
CRITICISM OF LEFT REALISM
Most working class people are not criminals, Left Realists seem to ignore this.
Victims of crime - Positivist victimology - Meirs
argues that positivist victimology has three features:
It aims to discover patterns in victimisation - victim proneness – the likelihood of a person being a victim of crime according to their social characteristics
It aims to identify victims who have contributed to their own victimisation – victims invite victimisation by being the kind of person that they are.
It focuses on interpersonal crimes of violence – e.g. male violence against women.
CRITICISMS OF POSITIVIST VICTIMOLOGY
Ignore wider structural factors influencing victimisation such as poverty and patriarchy.
Critical victimology
Structural factors – such as poverty and patriarchy which place powerless groups such as women and the poor at greater risk of becoming victims of crime.
The state’s power to deny or grant the label of ‘victim’ – ‘victim’ is a social construct created through the CJS when the state applies the label of ‘victim’ to some, but not to others.
CRITICISMS OF CRITICAL CRIMINOLOGY
Disregards the ways in which victims can precipitate victimisation, e.g. leaving valuables in the car.
