psychlotron.org.uk why does society punish offenders?

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Why does society punish offenders?

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• Retribution• Reform• Deterrence

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Today’s session

You are learning about... You are learning to...• Judicial sanctions for

offending (imprisonment & non-custodial sentencing)

• Use research to evaluate judicial sanctions

• Use psychological principles to explain effects on behaviour

• Distinguish between psychological and common-sense explanations of behaviour

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• Has our society ‘gone soft’ on crime?

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Prison population in England & Wales

Source: Morgan (2002)

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Prison population in England & Wales

• There are 140 people in prison per 100,000 population in E & W.– 50% higher than France, Germany & Italy– Double rate of most Scandinavian countries– Substantially lower than US (700+/100,000)

• The prison population has grown steadily since 1946– Doubled since 1991– Length of sentence has also been increasing

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Purposes of prison

• Morgan (2002) lists three purposes:– Custody– Coercion– Punishment

• Only the punishment function interests us.– Recidivism = return to criminal activities following

judicial punishment– Recidivism rate is a measure of the effectiveness

of punishment

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• In 1993, the Home Secretary Michael Howard insisted, ‘prison works’. Was he right?

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• Common sense would suggest that prison should reduce future offending. So why doesn’t it?

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Why doesn’t prison work?

• Offending is not always a rational choice• Prison does not adhere to known principles of

learning. Punishment should be:– Probable– Prompt– Aversive

• How might imprisonment fail to meet these criteria?

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• Probable– Many crimes are never solved, so punishment unlikely

• Prompt– Long delay between offending and eventual

imprisonment• Aversive– Not necessarily, given circumstances of many

offenders• Do offenders learn not to offend or not to get

caught?

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• Hollin (1992) suggests that, in the face of the failure of imprisonment to reform offenders, we have a choice between making prisons even more unpleasant and rethinking the whole idea. Which do you favour and why?

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Non-custodial sentencing

• How, besides imprisonment, does our judicial system respond to offenders?– Admonishment (e.g. police caution)– Fines– Probation (community rehabilitation order)– Reparation & restitution (e.g. community

punishment order)

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• In your groups:– Consider the possible advantages and

disadvantages of the sentence you are assigned, relative to imprisonment

– Think about: (1) potential to reform the offender; (2) additional effects on the offender/society; (3) economic implications

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Fines

• Walker & Farrington (1981): lower recidivism than probation or suspended prison sentence

• Feldman (1993) lower reconvictions than the alternatives for first offences

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Probation

• Oldfield (1996): prison – 63% recidivism; probation – 41% recidivism

• Roshier (1995): prison 64%; probation 41%

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Reparation & restitution

• Schneider (1986): restitution marginally more effective than alternatives, but depends on programme and community

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General issues

• Offenders take little account of judicial sanctions when weighing up costs and benefits of offending (McDonald, 1989)

• Offenders are not randomly assigned to sentences; differences in recidivism may be due to judicial risk assessment

• In terms of recidivism, non-custodial sentences are no worse than imprisonment and can be much better