AC 2.2 DISCUSS THE AIMS OF PUNISHMENT

• RETRIBUTION: 

  • Literally means ‘paying back’ 
  • Involves inflicting punishment  
  • Based on the idea criminals should get their ‘just desserts’ 
  • Society is morally entitled to take its revenge  
  • Offender should be made to suffer for breaching moral codes 
• retribution

  Proportionality: 

  • Idea punishment given should fit the crime  
  • Why some argue the death penalty should be used 
  • Idea leads to a tariff system  
• retribution

  Expressing Moral Outrage: 

  • Main purpose is to allow society to express its moral outrage  
  • Punishment is morally good 
  • Retribution is justification for punishing crimes, not a way of preventing future ones 
  • e.g., 2-year uplift for hate crimes is expression of moral outrage
• retribution

  Criticisms: 

  • Sometimes offenders may deserve mercy or chance to make amends 
  • Fixed tariff penalties must be inflicted even if no good will come of it e.g., for a remorseful offender 
  • People disagree on which crimes deserve which punishment, makes proportionality hard 
• retribution

  Theories: 

  Right Realism – links to rational choice theory, assumes offenders are rational thinkers, consciously chose to commit the crime so are fully responsible and must suffer the outrage of society 

  Functionalism – suggest moral outrage performs the function of boundary maintenance, reminds everyone the difference between right and wrong 
• REHABILITATION: 

  • Idea punishment can be used to reform, so they no longer offend 
  • Uses treatment programmes to change behaviour  
  • Addresses issues which led to their offending 
  • Generally, require the offender to want to change  
  • Often require considerable support and resources
• rehabilitation

  Policies: 

  • Education and Training Programmes – so they can avoid unemployment, earn an honest living 
  • Anger Management Courses – used for violent offenders, includes cognitive behavioural therapy 
  • Drug Treatment and Testing – treat alcohol or drug dependence  
• rehabilitation

  Criticisms: 

  • Many offenders still go on to reoffend, limited success 
  • Marx argues it shifts responsibility from capitalism to the offenders own individual failings 
• rehabilitation

  Theories: 

  Cognitive Theories – favour cognitive behavioural therapy as it teaches offenders to correct thinking errors  

  Eysenck – favours aversion therapy to deter offending behaviour  

  Skinner – supports the use of token economies to encourage acceptable behaviour  

  Left Realism – favour rehabilitation as they see social factors e.g., unemployment, poverty as the causes for crime, addressing these needs will reduce offending  
• DETERRENCE: 

  • Concept of putting people off crime
• deterrence

  Individual Deterrence: 

  • Specific deterrence 
  • Punishment used to deter individual from re-offending 
  • Punishment should show the crime isn’t worth it  
• deterrence

  General Deterrence: 

  • Deterring society in general from breaking the law 
  • Public will fear punishment when seeing what happens to someone else 
• deterrence

  Severity V Certainty: 

  • If there is little chance of being caught and convicted, criminals are less likely to deter 
  • If likelihood of being caught is low, this is less likely to be a deterrent 
• deterrence

  Criticisms: 

  • Half of prisoners re-offend within the year 
  • Difficult to decide how severe the punishment should be for it to be a deterrent 
  • Assumes offenders would know what the punishments are  
  • Assumes offenders act rationally, some act irrationally 
• deterrence

  Theories: 

  Right Realism – sees individuals as rational thinkers, situational crime prevention makes it harder to commit an offence 

  Social Learning Theory – general deterrence, if they see a model of punishment, they are less likely to imitate that behaviour  
• PUBLIC PROTECTION: 

  • Incapacitating offenders to protect the public  
  • Use punishment to remove offenders' physical capacity to offend again  
• public protection

  Incapacitation Policies: 

  • Execution of Offenders, prevents them from committing further crimes 
  • Cutting of hands of thieves  
  • Chemical castration of sex offenders 
  • Foreign travel bans  
  • Curfews and electronic tagging, restricts movement 
• public protection

  Imprisonment: 

  • Main means of incapacitation  
  • Takes offenders out of society, prevents them from committing further crimes 
  • Public protection had influenced sentencing laws, mandatory minimum sentences for repeat offenders 
  • Criminal Justice Act 2003 introduced the idea of ‘imprisonment for public protection’ 
  • Automatic life sentences for second serious sexual or violent assault  
• public protection

  Criticisms: 

  • Incapacitation leads to longer prison sentences, little hope of release 
  • Strategy of containment does nothing to deal with causes of crime 
  • Unjust as it imprisons them for crimes that the law assumes they may commit in the future  
• public protection

  Theories: 

  Lombroso – argues criminals are biologically different so not possible to rehabilitate them, favoured sending habitual offenders to exile 

  Right Realism – incapacitation protects the public from crime, long prison sentences would significantly reduce the crime rate  
• REPARATION: 

  • Involves offender making amends for what they did wrong 
  • Harm can be done both material and social  
• reparation

  Making Amends for Material Damage: 

  • Financial compensation, paid to the victim to repair damage, courts can impose compensation 
  • Unpaid work, community payback e.g., removing graffiti, imposed as a community order 
• reparation

  Restorative Justice: 

  • Make amends for social damage  
  • Involves offender recognising the wrongfulness of their actions  
  • Brings offender and victim together to allow explanation  
  • Allows offender to express their remorse and seek forgiveness 
  • Restorative justice can help bring closure to the victim  
  • Helps reintegrate the offender into society  
• reparation

  Criticisms: 

  • May not work for all types of offenders 
  • Compensation for damage and minor offences is straight forward however for sexual or violent crimes it becomes more complicated  
  • Reparation to homicide victims is impossible 
  • Reparation can be seen as too soft, and offenders get off lightly  
• reparation

  Theories: 

  Labelling Theory – favours restorative justice as it reintergrates offenders into mainstream society, enables them to show genuine remorse, prevents secondary deviance  

  Functionalists – argues reparation causes denunciation, showing society disproves of their behaviour, social control achieves solidarity in society and sets boundaries of acceptability towards crime