dealing w offending behaviour

• aims of custodial sentencing

  • retribution
  • rehabilitation
  • incapacitation
  • deterrence
• retribution

  punishment for the offender, provides society and victim with sense that criminals are paying for crime
• rehabilitation


  changing the offenders for the better, through learning new skills (training) and behaviour (therapy)
• incapacitation


  protecting society from the offender by putting them in prison
• deterrence 


  stopping recidivism rates and setting an example for society
• psychological effects of custodial sentencing

  • deindividuation
  • institutionalisation
  • depression
• deindividuation 


  stripping people of their identity, leading to highly aggressive behaviours
• institutionalisation 


  where offenders adapt to the prison environment and struggle to adapt to real life after release
• depression


  frightening environment, high levels of stress, leading to increased levels of self harm
• custodial sentencing


  holding criminals in a secure facility such as a prison or psychiatric hospital
• recidivism

  reoffending
• ministery of justice

  in 2020, found that 77% of criminals went on to reoffend and shorter sentences are more likely to reoffend
• AO3 of custodial sentencing

  • ineffective in deterring - minister of justice, 77% reoffend
  • incapacitation protects public
  • negative psychological effects on prisoners
  • expensive - £43,000+ , but cost-benefit analysis
  • offers rehab opportunities
  • counter-productive , reinforces pro-criminal attitudes
• behaviour modification

  based on behaviourist ideas and uses operant conditioning principles such as reinforcement and punishment to achieve desirable behaviours
• token economies

  help modify behaviour by giving tokens (secondary reinforcers) for desired target behaviours which can be exchanged for rewards (primary reinforcer)
• tokens are secondary reinforcers
• rewards are the primary reinforcers
• designing a token economy

  • operationalise target behaviours
  • scoring system
  • train staff
• operationalise target behaviours

  breaking target behaviour into smaller parts, should be objective and measurable
• scoring system 


  how much each behaviour is worth is scored differently, behaviour is hierarchal - some are worth more than others
• train staff

  important that staff are fully trained in order to implement successful token economy, meaning standardised procedures must be in place so that all behaviours are rewarded the same
• shaping

  tokens given for behaviours that become progressively more complex, an attempt to achieve long term objectives
• AO3 of behaviour modification:

  • easy to implement
  • limited to prisons: not long term
  • Hobbs and Holt found to be effective - average increase of 27%