Why does society punish offenders?

1. Why does society punish offenders?

2. Retribution • Reform • Deterrence

3. Today’s session

4. Has our society ‘gone soft’ on crime?

5. Prison population in England & Wales Source: Morgan (2002)

6. 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

7. 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

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

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

10. 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?

11. 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?

12. 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?

13. 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)

14. 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

15. Fines • Walker & Farrington (1981): lower recidivism than probation or suspended prison sentence • Feldman (1993) lower reconvictions than the alternatives for first offences

16. Probation • Oldfield (1996): prison – 63% recidivism; probation – 41% recidivism • Roshier (1995): prison 64%; probation 41%

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

18. 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