Custodial sentencing

• Custodial sentencing

  Involves the prisoner spending time in prison or another institution
• recidivism

  the number of people who re-offend after leaving a custodial sentence
• 4 aims of custodial sentencing

  • deterrence
  • incapacitation
  • retribution
  • rehabilitation
• deterrence

  designed to put the individual and others off committing a crime

  • individual - based on punishment from operant conditioning
  • general - based on vicarious reinforcement from social learning theory
• incapacitation

  the offender is taken out of society to prevent them from reoffending and protect the public
• retribution

  making the offender suffer for their crime, based on ‘an eye for an eye’
• rehabilitation

  aims to reform offenders so they can leave prison better adjusted and ready to go back into society

  • e.g providing opportunities to develop skills and training
• psychological effects of custodial sentencing

  • overcrowding + lack of privacy
  • Stress + depression
  • Institutionalisation
  • Prisonisation
  • Deindividuation + labelling
  • effects on family
• overcrowding & lack of privacy

  studies with rats showed that overcrowding leads to increased aggression, stress and physical illness
• stress + depression

  prisoners may feel hopeless and lacking in control - can be expressed in the form of self-harm and suicide
• institutionalisation

  Prisoners adapt to norms and values of prison life so find it difficult to cope in the real world

  • may commit crimes with the Intention of being arrested so they can return to familiarity
• prisonisation

  Prisoners are socialised into adopting an ‘inmate code’

  • behaviour that’s encouraged by inmates in prison would be unacceptable in the real world
  • Reinforces a criminal lifestyle
• deindividuation + labelling

  being referred to as a prisoner leads to a loss of individual identity which is associated with increased aggression - leads to loss of social contacts and reduced employability
• Effects on families

  • children with a parent in prison are affected psychologically and financially
  • Parents in prison may feel guilt and separation anxiety
• the problem of recidivism

  Prison Reform Trust say that recidivism rates are higher in under 18s and costs at least £10 billion per year for the economy
• why is difficult to measure recidivism

  it depends on how long after being released the person commits a crime and the type of crime that was committed
• Yukhnenco et al (2019)

  conducted a meta-analysis of recidivism rates in different countries

  • USA, Australia and Canada had highest rates
  • Norway had lowest rates
• positive evaluation of custodial sentencing

  may prisoners have education and training whilst in prison, increasing the possibility they will find employment when released

  • Shirley (2019) found that offenders who took part in education programmes whilst in prison were 43% less likely to re-offend
• negative evaluations of custodial sentencing

  • Barton (1995) suggested that prison is brutal, demeaning, and generally devastating - 119 people killed themselves in prison in 2016
  • prisons as ‘schools’ for crime - prisoners may learn techniques for crime from other offenders
  • the economy - prisons are expensive and aims of custodial sentencing could be achieved without the costs of a prison sentence