Custodial Sentencing

• Custodial Sentencing


  Holding criminals in a secure facility aims to:

  • Deterence - stop reoffending
  • Incapacitation - protect society
  • Retribution - paid for the crime
  • Rehabilitation - change behaviours
• Psychological Effects of CS:

  • Deindividuation
  • Depression, Self Harm, Suicide
  • Overcrowding/Lack of Privacy
  • Institutionalisation (struggle to integrate back into society)
  • Prisonisation (adopt inmate code, rewarded in prison, unacceptable in society)
• Recidivism


  Relapse into criminal behaviour, often after the person recieves sanctions or undergoes intervention for a previous crime

  • Cost of recidivism is around £9.5 billion per year
• (+) A03: Societal Views

  Popular with majority of society due to being a suitable retribution method to pay for crimes
• (+/-) A03: Rehabilitation


  Support is offered in the prisons, giving opportunity for education and training to increase chance of employment, also provides psychological support like anger management to reduce rate of recidivism; however, prison finances hinder this as some dont have access to resources
• (-) A03: University of Crime

  Although prisons have access to education to learn positive skills, most learning is from reoffending criminals with lots of experience, giving younger criminals opportunities to learn 'tricks of the trade', becoming a breeding ground for crime rather than societal values