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Crime and Violence: Forces for Good or Evil?

Crime and Violence: Forces for Good or Evil?. Lecture Five Consequences, punishment and treatment. Punishment in the past. Foucault, Discipline and Punish Public executions ended in England in the 1860s The death penalty was abolished in the 1960s Report on death penalty:

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Crime and Violence: Forces for Good or Evil?

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  1. Crime and Violence: Forces for Good or Evil? Lecture Five Consequences, punishment and treatment

  2. Punishment in the past • Foucault, Discipline and Punish • Public executions ended in England in the 1860s • The death penalty was abolished in the 1960s • Report on death penalty: • http://www.amnesty.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=78 • Kimmett Edgar and Carol Martin 2002

  3. 141 incidents of violence in four different types of prison • Two hundred and nine prisoners were interviewed

  4. Prisons • require inmates to interact with others whose behaviour they cannot predict; • deprive people of privacy; • are a place where others pose a risk to one's physical well-being; • turning to staff to resolve disputes is condemned as a betrayal of inmate solidarity and seen as weakness; and • the expected response to being wronged is to react with violence.

  5. Men in Prison National Prison Survey 1991 • 41% of male prisoners came from social classes 4&5 - compared to just 18% of the general population • 15% of males in prisons described themselves as Black or Asian - compared with less than 5% of the general population.

  6. Ryan and Sim (in Ruggiero, Ryan and Sim, 1995: 119) suggest that: • Once inside, prisoners are … placed in regimes which will emphasize authority rather than rehabilitation, security rather than justice and privileges rather than rights.

  7. Cycle One - force begets force • How prisoners deal with their fears for their personal safety increases the likelihood that fights and assaults will result. Kimmett Edgar and Carol Martin (2002) Conflicts and Violence in Prison

  8. Cycle One - force begets force Actual risk of assault: 1 in 5 adults and 1 in 4 young males assaulted per month. Feelings of intimidation Hostility, deception, suspicion, challenges, accusations… Psychological preparations for violent self-defence Perceived need to use force to demonstrate toughness to others leads to defensive reactions

  9. irrational, grubby and pedestrian, and lack panache and drama. Escalations that are apt to lead to bloodshed originate in the silliest issues of the most miniscule import. Persons fearful of others strike pre-emptively at more fearful adversaries. Yet-unshaven children posture and bluff and have their bluffs called. The most non-tough of men act tough until they think they are tough, and believe that others think they are tough. (Toch, in Stanko, 1994:94)

  10. Power, masculinity and prison violence • Rod Morgan - Oxford Handbook of Criminology BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7806840.stm

  11. The decent men and women in the service are regularly betrayed from within by their colleagues; 99 officers nationwide are currently suspended from work on suspicion of range of offences, including absence, fraud, racist abuse and assaulting prisoners and fellow staff. Inmates allege routine abuse of powers by officers, and privately a police officer suggests prison officers are central to the distribution of drugs among prisoners. Criminal charges are outstanding against officers from Wormwood Scrubs and police are investigating allegations of assault against four officers from Portland young offenders institution (YOI).

  12. Attitudes towards correcting violence are confused. Parents who preface a ‘correctional’ blow to a child with the words: ‘I’ll teach you to hit your little sister’, may have little inkling of the supreme irony of those words. There are lessons here for a nation’s attitudes towards correction. (Wells, in Stanko, 1994:69)

  13. Victims of violence British Crime Survey: • young people are more at risk than older people • women are more at risk from someone they know • police detection rates remain at an all-time low of 24% • Victim Support receive over 1 million referrals per year.

  14. Tony Martin (Guardian 18 April 2000) • Anthony Scrivener QC, defending, said "He didn't want people to burgle his house. He was in a situation where he had to make some desperate decisions."

  15. Recent avenues of studies in victimology have included: • How various components of the criminal justice system treat victims; • The impact of victimization; and • The effectiveness of certain interventions with crime victims. Victim Support http://www.victimsupport.com/

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