AC2.2 discuss aims of punishment

• Aims of sentencing

  1. To punish offenders
  2. To reduce crime
  3. To rehabilitate offenders
  4. To protect the public
  5. To repatriate victims when needed
• Retribution

  • Based on the idea an offender needs to be punished.
  • Does not seek to alter future behaviour of the offender, only to inflict a punishment for the crime.
  • Aims to provide an adequate level of justice to the victims of the offenders’ crimes.
  • Contains an element of revenge, whereby the victims and society are avenged for the wrong done by the individual. seems as public display of disgust
  • e.g. increase prison sentence for crimes that are racially motivated-> sentence uplift. causing death by dangerous driving went from 5 to 14 years
• Rehabilitation

  • Aim is to reform offenders and reintroduce them to society.
  • Presumes criminal behaviour is due to free will & choice. Believe criminals can change their behaviour
  • rehabilitation can be seen in community sentences & probation orders.
• Reparation

  • Often involves compensating the victim of a crime by ordering the offender to pay a sum of money to the victim.
  • Also aims to ensure offenders ‘payback’ and repatriate society by completing unpaid community work.
  • Restorative Justice schemes also created whereby offenders and victims meet. Offenders can make direct repatriation through writing letters of apology, repairing any damage caused and explaining the event/reasons for the crime face to face.
• Public Protection

  • Punishment must serve the purpose of protecting society from dangerous criminals.
  • Through incapacitation, an offender is prevented from having there freedom.
  • Examples of punishments can include long prison sentences and electronic tagging which aim to punish individuals and protect the public from serious criminals.
• deterrence

  Individual deterrence aims to prevent reoffending by imposing punishments such as suspended sentences. However, high recidivism rates suggest that this approach is ineffective. General deterrence seeks to discourage potential offenders but can be weakened when the punishment is not directly related to the individual. Strategies like behavior modification, drug treatment, and probation are used to promote more acceptable behavior= learning theory. marxists view the threat of lengthy sentences as a means of controlling the working class.
• Retribution evaluation

  fails to address the causes of crime do does not prevent future offending
• deterrence eval

  recidivism rates show that punishment is an ineffective deterrent
• rehabilitation eval

  too much focus on individuals and not social causes
• public protection eval

  this has led to overcrowding in prisons "warehousing of offenders"
• reparation eval

  some argue it is too lenient
• denunciation

  public or judicial condemnation aims to show that society disapproves of their behaviour