16.1.17

Evaluation of the Effects of Prison

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Evaluation of Imprisonment

The negative psychological effects are discussed in the previous section (things like mental health problems and institutionalisation. There are other factors to consider like effectiveness and cost.

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Imprisonment & society

  • The previous section on the effects of prisons on criminals discusses the issues pertaining to the criminals themselves:
    • Labelling, institutionalisation, mental health problems and reinforcement of criminal behaviour.
  • This section focusses on the effectiveness of imprisonment from a societal perspective.
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Effectiveness - support

  • Custodial sentencing is controversial due to debate over its effectiveness.
  • Those that support custodial sentencing state that there are benefits to the prisoners.
  • They have an opportunity to reform and become better people (rehabilitate).
  • The prisoners can also develop a new outlook on life.
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Effectiveness - reasons

  • Many argue that it is not actually fulfilling the aim society wants it to.
  • Recall that there are five main reasons for imprisonment:
    • Retribution/punishment, rehabilitation, deterrence, incapacitation and denunciation.
  • People can be imprisoned for a combination of these reasons, however, not all of these aims can be fulfilled.
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Effectiveness - debate

  • Therefore some argue that custodial sentencing does not really work.
    • For example, if custodial sentencing acted as a deterrent, then there should be no more crime. Obviously, this is not the case.
  • Some state that the only reason there is imprisonment is to please the public (denunciation and retribution reasons).

Evaluation of Imprisonment

The negative psychological effects are discussed in the previous section (things like mental health problems and institutionalisation. There are other factors to consider like effectiveness and cost.

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Cost

  • Imprisonment is also controversial because of the cost entailed.
  • It is very expensive to house, clothe, feed and rehabilitate a prisoner.
  • Some argue that the money allocated for imprisonment could be better served somewhere else.
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Prevention

  • Some state that more money should be spent on crime prevention rather than imprisonment.
  • By doing so, it could reduce costs in the long run as well as get rid of labelling, institutionalisation and reinforcement of criminal behaviour.
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Accounting for individuals

  • Finally, custodial sentencing should definitely not be a ‘one size fits all’ approach.
  • Imprisonment should vary in length and severity.
    • For example, small crimes like vandalism are probably more suited to be punished through community service rather than imprisonment.
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Community service

  • Community service would eliminate the issues of labelling and institutionalisation as they could keep their jobs, family and friend contacts.

Jump to other topics

1Social Influence

2Memory

3Attachment

4Psychopathology

5Approaches in Psychology

6Biopsychology

7Research Methods

8Issues & Debates in Psychology (A2 only)

9Option 1: Relationships (A2 only)

10Option 1: Gender (A2 only)

11Option 1: Cognition & Development (A2 only)

12Option 2: Schizophrenia (A2 only)

13Option 2: Eating Behaviour (A2 only)

14Option 2: Stress (A2 only)

15Option 3: Aggression (A2 only)

16Option 3: Forensic Psychology (A2 only)

17Option 3: Addiction (A2 only)

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