Custodial sentencing

• Custodial sentencing is when an offender spends time in an institution like a prison or hospital to correct their behaviour
• 5 aims of custodial sentencing; deterrence, incapacitation, punishment, retribution, and rehabilitation
• Deterrence aims to prevent other people committing the same offence based on vicarious reinforcement
• Incapacitation aims to protect the public from the offender dependent on the seriousness of their offence
• Punishment aims to prevent recidivism based on operant conditioning
• retribution aims to ensure offenders pay accordingly for the offences they commit
• rehabilitation aims to reform the offender so they can return to society
• Custodial sentencing acronym - DIP-RR (deterrence, incapacitation, punishment, retribution, rehabilitation)
• One psychological effect of custodial sentencing is higher rates of stress and depression within prisons along with higher rates when released
• One psychological effect of custodial sentencing is institutionalisation as offenders adapt to the norms and values of prison life increasing recidivism
• one psychological effect of custodial sentencing is prisonisation as prisoners adopt and inmate code in which frowned upon behaviours are encouraged
• one psychological effect of custodial sentencing is brutalisation as prisons act as a school for crime as prisoners learn new techniques to offend EG 70% of young offenders re-offend within 2 years of release
• 45% of UK offenders reoffend within one year of release
• young offenders show a 67% recidivism rate within a year
• Norway's recidivism rates are much lower than the UK's as it focuses more on rehabilitation than punishment
• Strength; different aims of custodial sentencing can be applied to many different types of institutions for example rehabilitation can be applied to therapy, anger management, and education within prisons
• weakness; Bartol (1995) suggests prison life is brutal to offenders as suicide rates in prisons are 15 times higher than the outside world HOWEVER this research is only correlational as offenders show higher rates of mental illness before even entering prisons anyway
• Weakness; due to brutalisation prison life may make recidivism rates worse as prisons act as a school for crime especially for young offenders who can be taught by more experienced career criminals
• Weakness; Davis and Raymond (2000) the government may exaggerate the effectiveness of custodial sentencing and that it may not decrease recidivism
• Weakness; there are less harsh alternatives such as community service which may be just as effective at reducing crime