AC 2.2

• What are the 5 aims of punishment?

  Retribution, rehabilitation, deterrence, public protection, reparation
• Retribution


  Expressing society's outrage at crime
• Rehabilitation


  Making offenders change their behaviour
• Deterrence


  Discouraging criminal acts by threatening punishment
• Public protection


  Protection from offenders
• Reparation


  Making amends of the harms caused by crime
• Retribution (just deserts, proportionality, expressing moral outrage)

  Just deserts -offenders deserve to be punished and society has the right to take its revenge. The offenders should suffer for breaching society's moral code.Proportionality -punishment should be proportionate to the harm done. "An eye for eye...", therefore some argue for death penalty for murders. Proportionality leads to a tariff system of penalties.Expressing moral outrage -retribution's purpose is just a way to express society's moral outrage, even though it can act as a deterrent for potential criminals; punishment is good regardless of whether it does or does not change offender's future behaviour.
• Retribution (example, theory, criticism)

  E.g. -Hate crimes have higher tarrifs (e.g. GBH is 5 years custody but 7 if it is proven to be racially motivated).Theory -Right Realism and Functionalism. It links with right realism as Retribution assumes that criminals are rational actors, and therefore must suffer a punishment for what they have chosen to do. It links with functionalism as retribution's function is to remind everyone what is right and wrong.Criticisms:1. One would argue that offenders deserve mercy or a change to make amends and not just punishment.2. Fixed tarrifs means that a punishment must be imposed even for remorseful offenders who will not committ further crimes.3. How do we decide the right punishment for each time? There are different opinions about which crimes are more serious than others.
• Rehabilitation (definition, policies, support)

  Definition -the idea to change an offender's behaviour so that they no longer offend. It aims at adressing the issues that led to criminal behaviour.Rehabilitation policies:1. Education training programmes (to avoid unemployment upon release).2. Anger managment courses (for violent offenders e.g. ART).3. Drug Treatment and Testing Orders, treatment for alcohol addiction.Community sentences often require offenders to attend such programmes.Support.Rehabilitation policies require offenders' consent and their will to change as well as considerable resources and professional support from therapists, probation officers, etc. Especially if their offences excluded them from mainstream society and they need to be reintegrated.
• Rehabilitation (individualistic and sociological theories, criticisms)

  Theories.Individualistic theories:1.Cognitive theories favour CBTs to change offenders' way of thinkting and prevent criminal behaviour.2. Eysenck's personality theory favours aversion theory to deter criminal behaviour.3. Skinner's operant learning theory supports token economies to control offenders' behaviour.Sociological theoriessuch as left realism link with rehabilitation as it acknowledges factors such as poverty and and poor education as causes of crime, therefore adressing these among offenders needed to reduce offending.Criticisms:1. Right realists argue that rehabilitation has limited success as many offenders reoffend even after rehabilitation programmes.2. Marxists criticise rehabilitation for focusing on individual's issues rather than on how capitalism causes crime.
• Deterrence (individual, general)


  Individual deterrenceuses punishment to deter individuals from recidivism. E.g. the argument that prisons work based on the idea that people would not want to go back to prison. In 1980s Margaret Thatcher's government introduced a thougher system of juvenile detention centres to deter young offenders.General deterrenceaims at deterring society from commiting crimes. If public sees an offenders being punished this will show them what they may face if they committ a crime. In the past it was done through public punishments (e.g. executions). Nowadays, people are more likely to find out about punishments through media reports.
• Deterrence (severity versus cetainty, theory)

  Severity vs. Certainty.If there is a sever punishment for a particular crime but the chances of being caught are low, this is unlikely to deter many offenders. (e.g. minimum sentence for third burglary is 3 years, only around 5% of reported burglaries result in conviction, so this is unlikely to be a deterrent). However, if an offender is likely to be caught even a smaller punishment can be an effective deterrent.Theory - right realism:1. Rational choice theory sees crime as a rational choice with criminals considering potential benefits and costs, therefore a high chance of getting caught will deter offending.2. Situational crime prevention strategies such as hardening make it harder to commit a successfully, therefore act as a deterrent.
• Criticisms of deterrence


  1. There is little evidence to suggest that rough detention centres for juveniles prevent youth offending.

  2. About 50% of prisoners reoffend within a year of release means that prison is not an effective deterrent.

  3. How do we decide how severe punishment should be to deter a potential offender?

  4. Deterrence assumes that potential offenders are aware of punishment for potential offence.

  5. Deterrence assumes that offenders act rationally and consider benefits and costs, however some crimes are committed due to emotions or without thought of the likely punishment.

  6. Many people follow the law because that believe it is right to do so not because of deterrence.
• Public protection (incapacitation, imprisonment)


  Incapacitation.Public can be protecten through incapacitation of offenders. Incapacitation uses punishment to remove an offender's physical ability to reoffend. For example:1. Execution of offenders.2. Cutting off the hands of thieves.3. Chemical castration of sex offenders.4. Banishment - e.g. 19th century convicts were oftend send to Australia.5. Foreign travel bans to prevent football hooligans attending matches abroad.6. Curfews and electronic tagging to prevent reoffending by restricting offender's freedom.Imprisonment- the main way of incapacitation today.
• Public protection (theory, crtiticisms)

  Biological theories.Lombroso argued that criminals are biologically different and it's impossible to rehabilitate them. He favour exiling criminals. Other biological theories favoured castration of sex offenders.Criticisms:1. Incapacitation leads to longer sentences, and therefore to increasing population and costs.2. Incapacitation is a strategy of containment, it does nothing to address causes of crime or to change offenders' behaviour.3. The three strikes principle repunishes offenders for their previous crimes.4. It is unfair because it imprisons offenders for offences that they can presumably committ in future.
• Reparation (definition, financial compensation, unpaid work, restorative justice)

  In repartaion offenders amends the harm they have caused to an individual or society. This can be both material and social.1. Financial compensation - repaying costs of damage done, courts may require defendant to pay the costs as a part of sentence.2. Unpaid work - reparation through Community Payback (e.g. removing graffiti) can be required by court as a part of a Community Order.Restorative justice.Reparation involves offender's recognition of wrongfulness of their action. This can be done through restorative justice schemes which bring victims and their offenders together, often with a help of mediator. This allows the victim to explain how the crime had affected them and the offender to appreciate the harm caused, express remorse and seek forgiveness. It can help bring closure to the victim and help offender rejoin the society.
• Reparation (theories, criticisms)


  Theories:Labelling theoryfavours restorative justice, by giving offenders a way to show remorse it helps offenders rejoin the society and prevents them from reoffending.Functionalistssuch as Durkheim argue that restorative justice helps return the things how they were before the crime was committed - vital for functioning of a society.Criticisms:1. Reparation may not work with some types of offences. Fair reparation for minor offences may be difficult to establisht while reparation for violent offences is almost impossible. A rapte victim can be unwilling to fogive their rapist while reparation to homicide victims is impossible.2. Some regard reparation as too soft punishment.