AC2.2 - Describe the aims of punishment

Who gives out punishment?

• A judge – unlimited powers but are restricted by the sentence the offense carries, e.g. theft seven years

• Magistrate – limited powers

What are the aims of punishment?

• retribution

• Incapacitation

• Reparation

• Deterrence

• Rehabilitation

Retribution

Expressing societies outrage at crime and punishing an offender

• revenge – society and the victim are being revenged for the wrong done

• The death penalty can be seen to fulfil the biblical expression of ‘an eye for an eye’

• It provides a compensation measure of justice to someone who has committed murder

• ‘Let the punishment fit the crime’

• However, it doesn’t seek to alter further behaviour

• It can be expressed as a defendant to get in their ‘just desert’

Example of retribution

Man must carry guilty sign for six years after he stole £250,000 from the Harris country crime victims fund

How does retribution link to theories?

• right realism – criminals are fully responsible for their actions and should suffer the outrage of society appropriately

• Functionalism – moral outrage of society reminds everyone that crime is wrong therefore crime serves a function

• Denunciation - links to functionalism, you denounce crime (say it’s wrong), happened in Shannon Matthews case as she fixed the kidnapping of her own daughter for the reward money and the public labelled her as the worlds worst mum, this denounced the crime

What are the issues with using only retribution?

• can lead to miscarriage of justice

• Too harsh, justice is subjective

• It doesn’t seek to alter future behaviour

• it doesn’t look at the causes of crime

Criticisms of retribution

• offenders made to deserve forgiveness or the chance to make amends

• For fixed penalties, does everyone deserve to be punished?

• People disagree about what just desserts would be for each crime, e.g. someone would want the death penalty for crime

• Makes justice into a transaction

• More difficult to consider mitigating factors

• Prioritises punishment over treatment

• Dehumanises offenders

Incapacitation

The protection of the public through different types of punishment

• Imprisonment

• Execution

• Curfews or electronic tagging

Imprisonment

• crime act 1997 introduced mandatory minimum jail sentences

• E.g. automatic life sentences for a second serious sexual or violent offence, seven years minimum for third class A drug offence

• Criminal justice act 2003 introduced the idea of imprisonment for public protection

Incapacitation links to theories

• biological theories - Lombroso believe that people were born criminals, he favoured sending criminals into exile to protect people

• Right realism – agrees with tough on crime, believes in a long prison sentence

Criticisms of incapacitation

• Doesn’t deal with causes of crime

• Three strikes rule punishes people again for previous crimes

• It assumes people will commit crimes in the future

Reparation

making up for the harm caused to others

• Financial compensation

• Unpaid work – community payback

• Restorative justice - making amends for damaged done by bringing the victim and offender together, allows the offender to understand the damage they have done, it makes justice the work of the community, it considers the interest of victims and offenders

reparation linked to theories

• labelling – through restorative justice it allows people to reimagines their label as a criminal

• Functionalism - helps reinforce that a criminal has done something wrong and there is a positive result of crime

Criticisms of reparation

• May not work for all crimes (sexual assault victim may not want to meet offender)

• Some people think punishments like fines are too easy on offenders

Deterrence

Discouraging future behaviour

• Individual – punishment to an offender, e.g. in the US young offenders could be sent to Boot Camp to stop them reoffending

• General – aims at deterring society in general, e.g. execution/3 strikes and you’re out

• Severity v certainty - even if the punishment is very severe, it won’t deter people if the offender thinks they can get away with it, e.g. only 5% of reported burglaries result in successful convictions and 7.8% of crimes led to a suspect being charged

Deterrence links to theories

• right realism – focus on harsh punishments for crime prevention

• Social learning theory – if someone is punished and someone sees that, they are less likely to imitate that behaviour

Criticisms of deterrence

• Little evidence showing Boot Camp’s work

• At least half of prisoners reoffend within a year of release

• Difficult to know how severe a punishment should be to deter criminals

• Not everyone who offend will know the punishment, so it doesn’t act as a deterrent for everyone

• Offenders are unlikely to weigh up the risks involved before committing a crime

Rehabilitation

Making offenders change their behaviour

• Education and training programs can avoid unemployment upon release

• Anger management courses, for violent offenders

• Drug treatment programs

Rehabilitation links to theories

Individualistic theories see rehabilitation as a significant

• Eysenck’s personality theory – wants to deter reoffending through changing the behaviour of criminals

Sociological theories

• Left realism – addresses the cause of offending

Criticisms of rehabilitation

• Right realists argue rehabilitation only has a limited success

• Marxists believe it’s the fault of the state and not the fault of the individual for the cause of crime, so the state should be changed not the individual