Crime Control

Functionalist

punishment exists to maintain value consensus

People who break these norms and values are punished these reinforce to society what is right and wrong

Marxism

Punishment maintains capitalism through laws protecting the ruling class and target the workers

masking the real problem of inequality and capitalism

Changing roles of prisons

Used to be used as a holding for the real punishment (flogging and execution)

Liberal democracies prisons - Most severe form of punishments

1980s gov. called for tougher and longer sentences (UK = highest proportions of prisoners in Europe)

Reasons for punishments

Deterrence - Punishment discourages them from offending

rehabilitation- Punishment can reform/ change offenders

Incapacitation - remove the offenders capacity to offend again

Retribution - ‘ Paying back’

Uk prison system

doesn’t act as a deterrent / rehabilitation as reoffending rates are so high

fails to incapacitation and retribution as releasing prisoners early

Restorative justice

Community sentencing rather than imprisonment for less serious offending

Face to face meetings between victim and offenders

Left realist approach

Focus on the social cause of crime ‘tough on the cause of crime’

recognise offenders and victims come from the most marginalised areas

Tackling issues of poor housing, education, unemployment

Ev. Soft on crime, and focus on cause of crime, downplay role of offender

Kinsey

police need to improve clear up rates and spend more time investigating crime to restore faith for the public

More military style policing

Solutions for crime - left realism

Build community cohesion, Multi agency approach working with councils and probations services and health - more democratic and community control of policing , tackling social deprivation by improving facilities to divert potential offenders, intensive parental support e.g sure start

Right realism-

focus on the individual and specific location of crime rather than the wider social issue

practical and achievable solutions

ev. Zero tolerance policing can be time consuming and expensive move resources from more serious crimes,

doesn’t address wider causes of crime

lead to labelling of criminals

basic assumption that crime is rational

Broken window policy- WIlson and Kelling

Prevent deterioration of social cohesion and good sense of community and to keep neighbourhoods safe to keep environments in good physical conditions and the police should have a policy of zero tolerance by cracking down on anti- social behaviours

Felson and Clarke

Routine activity theory

Crime is a result of three conditions

Suitable target

No capable guardian e.g parent, neighbour, CCTV, police

An offender present who makes the rational choice to commit crime

Clarke

Situational crime prevention- to prevent crime in location rather than catch offenders ]

ev. moves crime to other areas

Hirschi

control theory

individual chooses conformity over crime when having a strong social bond

Focus on tighter social control and socialisation to focus on those at risk of social exclusion

Foucault- Birth of prison

Sovereign power- Pre 19th century

The monarch had absolute power over people and their bodies punishments = branding, amputation,

Disciplinary power- Became dominant after 19th century. Discipline the soul not the body

Panopticon

A design of prison in which all prisoner cells are visible to the guard from a central watch tower

guards are not visible to the prisoners

Prisoners did not know they were being watched so had to act like they were

surveillance = self surveillance

Ev. Exaggerated the extent of control

CCTV doesn’t always reduce crime displaces elsewhere

Surveillance theory since Facoult

The panacoptican allowed the few to monitor the many

Media allows the many to see the few

everyone watches everyone

E.g politicans fear the media

Liquid surveillance

people are tracked more and more via new technology and data

Surveillance slips into a liquid state

Mass incarcentation- Garland

Most prisoners are young male working class

Ethnic minorities are overrepresented

The UK and The USA are moving towards mass incarceration

High prison population could be linked to the fact that there are a large social inequality and poor wealthfare provisions in these countries compared to western countries with low prison pop