Punishment Flashcards
Punishment in the past
In the past, punishment was physical and brutal. Retribution was the main aim, which refers to revenge, pure and simple.
The biblical passage an ‘eye for an eye’ was used to underpin criminal justice. One wrong commuted against a person would be met with one wrong commuted to the offender.
Trial by ordeal allowed the local church to seek Gods judgement in deciding whether or not a person was guilty of a crime that they were accused of, punishment involved hanging, burning and humiliation in the stocks.
What is the function of punishment?
What forms does punishment take?
Simple retribution:
> punishment to teach the offender a valuable lesson. Severe prison sentences, for example, should reflect the severity of a crime. In the worst cases, judges are entitled to sentence offenders to a full-life term where they will never walk free again.
EVALUATION:
> It does little to reduce recidivism (repeat offending). Prison is effective in keeping dangerous people locked away until there sentence is served, little positive influence on offenders.
Deterrence:
> On an individual level, punishment is designed to prevent an offender from committing future crimes. Prison sentences and severe fines can have a deterrent effect for both offenders themselves and for those who may consider committing crime.
Evaluation:
> There is no evidence of deterrence, around 50% of offenders end back up in prison, therefore showing that the punishment is not successful.
Rehabilitation:
> Help\ support for an offender in order to turn their life around. For example, drug and alcohol therapy provided by the government.
> Education is also provided as many offenders have the smartness of a primary school student.
Evaluation:
> In order for this to be effective, offenders must want to change their life around. However, there is little evidence that rehabilitation is successful, and it can also be very expensive.
Protection of the public:
> This may involve the offender not being able to commit crime again. Electronic tagging can stop offenders from being outside their home at certain hours of the day. Driving band can also prevent risk to the public.
Evaluation:
> athese can be hard to enforce. Very costly and huge cuts to policing budgets mean that officers are over stretched as it is.
Restorative justice:
> Schemes which allow offenders to show that they are sorry and to make amends to victims.
> courts can force offenders to pay compensation to their victims.
Evaluation:
> These can be costly and expensive. Few victims wish to take part in available schemes and there is limited evidence that such punishments actually help to reduce re-offending.
> Rught realists claim that such punishments are too soft, and they call for a much tougher approach to punishment instead.
Functionalists’ perspectives on punishment
Functionalists believe that a key feature of punishment is to uphold social solidarity and reinforce societal norms and values
> Punishment expresses society’s dissatisfaction with crime and that crime will not be tolerated. It allows the world to have a sense of moral unity.
> Dukheim highlighted that the need for punishment is to help ‘repair the wounds inflicted on society’.
> Hangings outside the Tower of London used to be very popular. In more recent times, functionalist views have influenced the criminal justice system in allowing court trials to have public viewing galleries. This allows the public to see that justice is being served, and that crime is taken seriously.
Marxists perspectives on punishment
Marxists claim that the function of punishment is to maintain the existing social order. Punishment is part of the repressive state apparatus which serves to defend the interest of the ruling class.
> Many methods of punishment are seen as being part of an approach to ‘rule by terror’ by the state, and its mostly poor, working-class people who are caught, prosecuted and punished.
> Prison places are overwhelmingly filled with working-class people. Marxist believe that this is not a coincidence, but a convenient way for the working-class rebels off the streets.
What is prison like today?
- In May 2016 there were 81,500 men in prison and 3806 women in prison.
- Many critics claim that prison is merely a place to make bad people worse.
- Between 1993-2007 prison populations grew by 70%.
- England imprisons more people than any other country in Western Europe.
- Prison population are mainly young, male and poorly educated.
- Young black men are over represented in prison.
