Trends in Punishment Flashcards
In liberal democracies that do not have the death penalty, what is the most serious form of punishment?
imprisonment
What has there been a move towards since the 1980’s
populist punitiveness
what is populist punitiveness?
politicians seeking popularity by calling for tougher sentences.
An example of populist punitiveness:
New Labour (from 1997) argued prison should not be used just for serious offenders, but as a deterrent for persistent petty offenders.
what occurred as a result of New labour’s argument?
the prison population has swollen between 1993 and 2005 in England and Wales by about 70% to a total of 77,000 prisoners.
what did the swelling prison population cause?
overcrowding
David garland (2001): the USA and to a lesser extent the UK is moving into an era of…
mass incarceration
The UK imprisons a higher proportion of people than…
almost any other country in western europe
England and wales imprisonment:
139 out of every 100, 000 people are in prison
France imprisonment:
99 out of every 100, 000 people are in prison
Sweden imprisonment:
64 out of every 100, 000 people are in prison
Russia imprisonment:
607 out of every 100, 000 people are in prison
USA imprisonment:
730 out of every 100, 000 people are in prison
who consists of the prison population?
largely Male
(only around 5% is female)
young
poorly educated
overrepresentation of black and EM groups
there is an overrepresentation of:
black and EM groups in the prison population.
