Paper 3 - Criminal 6 - Prison

Question 1

what are the 2 types of punishment

Answer 1

• non custodial - fine, community sentence or probation
• custodial - prison or a secure hospital

Question 2

Explain Dooley’s background study on effects of imprisonment

Answer 2

• Aimed to investigate all unnatural deaths that occured in prisons in England and Wales between 1972 and 1987.
• used government records
• Of 443 unnatural deaths, 300 were suicides. The remaining 143 were recorded with a variety of verdicts mainly misadventure, including 52 from self inflicted injury.
• Most deaths occured at night by prisoners who were not yet sentenced.
• Dooley attributed the suicides and unnatural deaths to overcrowding and prisoners’ stress.
  This indicates that prisons may make matters worse for offenders and it is important to find a balance between punishment and reform.

Question 3

describe the data from Ministery of Justice on are prisons effective

Answer 3

• where offenders are extremely violent and dangerous to society it can be agued that locking them up is effective becaise it prevents them from committing further crimes.
• However, nearly 40% of prison sentences are less than 4 years and so prison is only a temporary measure.
• 25% of prisoners go on to reoffenf after punishment in which case prison is not effective (Ministery of justice 2017)
• What prison can do is to provide offenders with an opportunity to learn new skills or change behaviour.

Question 4

What is the aim of Haney’s study on a simulated prison

Answer 4

• Create a mock prison which was a functional representation of a real prison.
• This would allow role playing pps to go into the deep structure of the characters they represented.

Question 5

What was the method of Haney’s study

Answer 5

• Lab experiment
• Independent measures design
• IV= role of prisoner or gaurd
• DV= behaviour of prisoners and gaurds
• Dependent variables were observed using audio and video tapes.
• Self report through questionnaires, personality tests, guard reports and post experimental interviews

Question 6

what was the sample of Haney’s study

Answer 6

• Volunteers were found through a newspaper in the Palo Alto times and the Stanford Daily
• The 75 respondents were given a series of psychological tests and interviews and the 24 mean judged the most stable were selected.
• All were college students and middle class.
• Final sample was 10 prisoners and 11 guards.

Question 7

Describe the procedure of Haney’s study

Answer 7

• Prisoners were unexpectedly taken from their homes by Palo Alto police.
• At the mock prison they were stripped naked.
• The prison consisted of 3 small cells each with cots for each prisoner
• The doors had steel bars
• In the next wing of the building there was rooms for the guards.
• The prisoners remained in the prison but the guards worked 3 man 8 hour shifts, going on with there normal life at other times.
• All pps signed a contract and were gartunteed a minimal diet, clothing, housing, medical care, little privacy and payment.
• Their basic civil rights were suspended with the exception of physical abuse.
• The guards belived the primary interest was to study the behaviour of prisoners.
• The guards only referred to the prisoners by number
• Prisoners were served 3 bland means a day, allowed 3 supervised toilet trips, and given 2 visiting periods and movies per week.

Question 8

What were the results of Haney’s study

Answer 8

• Guards expressed aggression using verbal abuse.
• When the experiment ended the guards seemed distressed, one said he was upset about the suffering of the prisoners. However, none of them failed to turn up on time, and some picked up extra hours without extra pay.
• 5 prisoners were released early because of depression, rage, crying anf anxiety. One of them developed a psychosomatic rash. These symptoms developed as early as the second day.
• Some guards made prisoners clean toilets with their bare hands - far beyond their rules.
• The experiment was ended after 6 days, 8 days early. This was because of the effect on the pps.

Question 9

What were the conclusions of Haney’s study

Answer 9

• Being confined in a prison environment had a large negative effect on the guards and prisoners.
• Guards developed a pathology of power, they gradually begin misusing their freedom and power as it was exhilerating to them.
• Prisoners developed pathological prisoner syndrome. They leanred to respond to the guards behaviour. Inital disbelif was followed by a rebellion, then flattened emotions, becoming passive and ill.
• Ordinary individuals can play roled they are given to extremes and there are individual differences in the way people cope with new experiences.
• The study demonstrated that prison is a stressful place due to the mental reactions. Prison may make matters worse for offenders.
• Hanley suggests that their research provides a reason for better guard training and operation of institutions so that reform plays an imporant role rather than just punishment.

Question 10

evaluate the validity of this topic

Answer 10

1. Haney has low ecological validity because the simulation was not completely realistic.
   2.Dooley has high internal validity as used official government records
2. Haney has low population validity as only stable men

Question 11

evaluate reliability of this topic

Answer 11

1. Haney has low inter rater reliability as it was based on observation
2. Dooley used official government records which is reliable due to strict guidelines
3. Haney has low external reliability as only men from Palo alto or stanford, midddle class.

Question 12

evaluate the sampling bias of this topic

Answer 12

1. Haney used males
2. Haney used american students
3. Dooley used all unnatural deaths so male and female

Question 13

evaluate the ethnocentrism of this topic

Answer 13

1. ministery of justice - uk
2. Dooley only usedn england and wales.
3. Haney used only american middle class men

Question 14

evaluate the freewill/determinism debate

Answer 14

1. Determinism for Haney’s study the guards behaviour was due to the power they were given over prisoners however some chose not to be too harsh.
2. Dooley suggests that deaths were determined by overcrowding and prison stress
3. freewill - Minstry of justice shows that 25% reoffend

Question 15

evaluate the individual/ situational (nature/nurture) debate in this topic

Answer 15

1. situational - Haney pps behaviour was caused by the role they were put in.
2. Dooley - situation of the overcrowded prison caused their death
3. Haney - individual - some guards were less aggressive and avoided conflict by doing food and drink runs. Also aggressive guards were more aggressive at night when they thought that cameras were off. showing that it is the personality of guards

Question 16

evaluate the usefulness of research

Answer 16

1. Haney has low ecological validity so is unscientific and may have created demand characteristics as they knew it was a mock prison
   2.Dooley - raises awareness of unnatural deaths/ suicide in prison. intervention can be put in place to reduce this. Also raises awareness of mental impact of prisons
2. Ministry of justice - prison can provide offenders with new skills to change their behaviour. Therefore, reform as a response to criminal behaviour plays an important role.

Question 17

evaluate the ethical considerations of this topic

Answer 17

1. Haney - lack of fully informed consent. they did not know that they would be arrested at home. However, Haney tried to deal with this by extensively debriefing them
2. Haney - they were fulled debriefed, howeveaas r lots of harm was caused
3. Dooley - socially sensitive because it could affect people going into prison or families of people in prison

Question 18

evaluate psychology as a science in this topic

Answer 18

1. Haney - tested a hypothesis and manipulated an IV
2. Haney - low ecological validity
3. Dooley - used content analysis of government records which follow strict guidelines

Question 19

what are the 2 applications for reducing reoffending

Answer 19

• restorative justice
• anger management

Question 20

how does restorative justice work ?

Answer 20

• restoration - ensure that all harm caused in repaired
• volunatrism - pps come to restorative justice on their own freewill
• neutrality - no one feels disadvantaged or discriminated against
• safety - risk assesments ensure the safety of all parties and practitioners should be fully trained
• accessibility - available to anyone
• respect - highly emotional process in a neutral and measured fashion
• Porcedure - practitioner will invite victim and offender to a meeting where the process is clearly explained and both sided are introduced. initially they encouraged to talk about the crime and why they have agreed to RJ. the offender will often apologise. The victim is asked to explain how their life has changed. They are often reassured to learn that the criminal is attending rehabilitation etc. A contract is drawn that sets out what has been agreed by the offender, what actions must be taken and is then signed by both sides.

Question 21

explain usefulness, effectiveness and practicalities of restorative justice

Answer 21

• usefulness - helps provide closure for both sides. less likely to reoffend.
• effectiveness- the success depends on the ectent to which the criminals feel remorse. their is a danger that some may sign up to reduce their sentence or to avoid prison. Therefore it may not provide a positive outcome if pps dont have best intentions
• practicalities - the meeting is likely to be emotional the input of a specialist is requires. they are expensive and rare to find. Also, there are high drop put rates as pps lose their nerve to do it.

Question 22

explain the process of anger management

Answer 22

• Assumes that anger causes crime
• if offenders learn to control anger this should decrease crime
• It is based on cognitive behavioural therapy which aimes to recognise feelings of anger, control their anger and resolve any conflict
• stage 1 - cognitive preparation - offender must learn to identifiy triggering situations. they are taught to be mindful of internal clues that they are becoming angry.
• stage 2 - skills acquisition - offenders learn different relaxation techniques to use during angry situations, e.g. regulate breathing.
• stage 3 - application practice - the skills are applied in role play in a controlled non threatening environment.
• the end result is to practice this until it becomes natural and replaces violent responses

Question 23

what is the effectiveness, usefulness and practicalities of anger management

Answer 23

• effectiveness - improves self control, problem solving and reduction of reoffending.
• usefulness - can improve relationships, better quality of life. less likely to reoffend
• practicalities - difficulty in maintaining motivation to go to interventions, may have lack of concentration or stop showing up.

Question 24

evaluate socially sensitive research in topic 6

Answer 24

1. strength - allows to study specific behaviour of prisoners - Haney
2. weakness - labelling - Dooley - all people who go to prison will be mentally affected
3. strength - change in policies - changes prison systems to reformation

Question 25

explain the reductionism/ holism debate in this topic

Answer 25

1. holism - Haney looked at gaurds and prisoners
2. Dooley - only looked at unnatural deaths
3. Haney - reductionism - didnt look at dispositional factors