MT3 - Punishment, control and victims of crime

Question 1

Punishment - Functionalism - Durkheim

Answer 1

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

Question 2

CRITICISMS OF DURKHEIM

Answer 2

Durkheim misunderstood the traditional societies as they did actually have restitutive justice.

Question 3

Punishment - Marxism

Answer 3

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’.

Question 4

Types of punishment - Imprisonment

+C

Answer 4

Prisons have four main goals:
Protect the public 
Punish criminal behaviour 
Reform criminals 
Deter other people from crime

+C
Many prisoners suffer from mental health issues, attempt suicide and commit suicide.

Question 5

Alternatives to imprisonment - ASBOs (Anti Social Behaviour Order)

+C

Answer 5

Issued by local magistrates.

If an ASBO is breached it becomes a criminal matter punishable with a fine or imprisonment.

+C
Argues that community based controls do not deter young people from crime.

Question 6

Alternatives to imprisonment - Parenting contracts and orders

Answer 6

Target the parents of unruly children.

Parenting orders are made by magistrates if a child is involved in anti social behaviour.

Question 7

Alternatives to imprisonment - Curfews and dispersal orders

Answer 7

Ban children from public places.

The police have the power to break up groups of two or more.

Question 8

Alternatives to imprisonment - Probation

Answer 8

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.

Question 9

Alternatives to imprisonment - Fines

+C

Answer 9

A sum of money paid to the authorities by an offender as restitution for an offence for which they have been convicted.

+C
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.

Question 10

Situational crime prevention

Answer 10

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.

Question 11

CRITICISMS OF SITUATIONAL CRIME PREVENTION

Answer 11

Situational crime prevention measures don’t prevent crime, they displace it.

Question 12

Environmental crime prevention - Wilson and Kelling

Answer 12

‘Broken window’ - A single broken window in a neighbourhood will lead to disorder as such neighbourhoods lack both informal and formal social control.

Question 13

Social / community crime prevention

Answer 13

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.

Question 14

Surveillance - Foucault

Answer 14

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.

Question 15

CRITICISMS OF FOUCAULT

Answer 15

People get used to CCTV and their behaviour reverts to normal.

Question 16

Surveillance since Foucault – synoptic surveillance - Mathiesen

Answer 16

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.

Question 17

CRITICISMS OF MATHIESEN

Answer 17

Synopticon and surveillance can not always reverse established hierarchies of surveillance.

Question 18

Surveillance since Foucault – labelling and surveillance - Norris and Armstrong

Answer 18

CCTV operators make discriminatory judgements about who among the thousands of potential suspects they focus on.

Question 19

Theories on crime prevention - Right Realism

Answer 19

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.

Question 20

CRITICISMS OF RIGHT REALISM

Answer 20

Ignore the wider social causes of crime such as poverty.

Question 21

Theories on crime prevention - Left Realism

Answer 21

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.

Question 22

CRITICISM OF LEFT REALISM

Answer 22

Most working class people are not criminals, Left Realists seem to ignore this.

Question 23

Victims of crime - Positivist victimology - Meirs

Answer 23

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.

Question 24

CRITICISMS OF POSITIVIST VICTIMOLOGY

Answer 24

Ignore wider structural factors influencing victimisation such as poverty and patriarchy.

Question 25

Critical victimology

Answer 25

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.

Question 26

CRITICISMS OF CRITICAL CRIMINOLOGY

Answer 26

Disregards the ways in which victims can precipitate victimisation, e.g. leaving valuables in the car.