Public protection

• What is public protection also known as?

  Incapacitation
• What is the aim of public protection?

  Making it physically impossible for criminals to reoffend
• Extreme examples of public protection:

  • execution
  • banishment (in the 19th century, many convicts were sent to Australia)
  • physically cutting off hands (Saudi Arabia today)
  • chemical castration - sex offenders (some states of America
• less extreme examples of public protection:

  • curfews
  • electronic tagging
  • driving/travel bans e.g.: football hooligans
• what is the UK’s biggest form of public protection?

  prison
• how does prison work as public protection?

  it takes harmful people away from society
• what does the crime sentences act 1997 enforce?


  standard sentences for specific offences
• how many years imprisonment is received for a 3rd conviction of class A drug trafficking?

  7 years
• define indeterminate sentencing 


  prison sentences which have no specific end date. parole board decides when you deserve to be released
• what happened to Jerry William’s as part of the 3 strikes you’re out law in the 1990s?

  received 25 years (life without parole) because he stole a slice of pizza
• how do biological theories link to public protection?

  criminals are born that way and it isn’t possible to rehabilitate them
• give an example of biological theories being applied in public protection

  lombroso argued for sending criminals to remote islands to keep them away from the public
• what punishment may biological theories support?

  chemical castration - sex offenders
• how does right realism link to public protection?

  they believe a small number of persistent offenders are responsible for majority of crimes, so it’s acceptable to incapacitate them with long sentences
• strengths of public protection:

  • keeps the public safe from certain dangerous individuals
  • can seem the only thing that works with a minority of persistent offenders

  weaknesses of public protection:

  • rise of prison population = rising rates of recidivism
  • costs a lot
  • a containment strategy which tackles the symptoms of crime, but not the causes
  • the ”three strikes” approach can re-punish people for previous crimes