Chapter Summary

• Retribution and punishment are fundamental aspects of the criminal justice system and are often given as a justification for harsh sentencing. However, the empirical evidence suggests that little is achieved by way of crime reduction by punishing offenders.
• The death penalty, while no longer used in the UK, is used sometimes extensively in other parts of the world. Its use raises a raft of issues, including moral and religious considerations, for any society to consider.
• The idea that the criminal justice system might be of a correctional benefit to offenders, so helping them to reduce their offending, came about as part of the civic reforms of the 19th century.
• A range of types of service, drawing on education, employment training and psychotherapeutic methods, has variously been offered to offenders in an attempt to reduce reoffending.
• The damning view that ‘nothing works’ in offender rehabilitation was overturned in the late 1990s by a string of meta-analyses guiding the ‘what works’ principles of effective practice to reduce reoffending.

Reading List

Bottoms, A., Rex, S., & Robinson, G. (2004). Alternatives to prison: Options for an insecure society. Cullompton, Devon: Willan.

Bowen, E. (2011). The rehabilitation of partner-violent men. Chichester, Sussex: John Wiley & Sons.

Bruinsma, G., Elffers, H., & de Keijser, J. (Eds.). (2004). Punishment, places and perpetrators: Developments in criminology and criminal justice research. Cullompton, Devon: Willan.

Carlen, P. (Ed.). (2002). Women and punishment: The struggle for justice. Cullompton, Devon: Willan.

Crow, I. (2001). The treatment and rehabilitation of offenders. London: Sage Publications.

Daly, K. (2002). Restorative justice: The real story. Punishment and Society, 4, 55–79.

Dignan, J. (2005). Understanding victims and restorative justice. Maidenhead, 0Berks: Open University Press.

Goldstein, A. P., Glick, B., & Gibbs, J. C. (1998). Aggression Replacement Training: A comprehensive intervention for aggressive youth (Revised ed.). Champaign, IL: Research Press.

Goldstein, A. P., Nensén, R., Daleflod, B., & Kalt, M. (Eds.). (2004). New perspectives on aggression replacement training: Practice, research and application. Chichester, Sussex: John Wiley & Sons.

Haney, C. (2006). Reforming punishment: Psychological limits to the pains of imprisonment. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Hollin, C. R. (Ed). (2001). Handbook of offender assessment and treatment. Chichester, Sussex: John Wiley & Sons.

Hollin, C. R., & Palmer, E. J. (Eds.). (2006). Offending behaviour programmes: Development, application, and controversies. Chichester, Sussex: John Wiley & Sons.

Honderich, T. (1969). Punishment: The supposed justifications. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin.

Hood R., & Hoyle C. (2008). The death penalty: A worldwide perspective (4th ed., revised and expanded). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Liebling, A., & Maruna, S. (Eds.). (2005). The effects of imprisonment. Cullompton, Devon: Willan.

Lindsay, W. R. (2009). The treatment of sex offenders with developmental disabilities: A practice workbook. Chichester, Sussex: John Wiley & Sons.

Marshall, W. L., Fernandez, Y. M., Marshall, L. E., & Serran, G. A. (Eds.). (2006). Sexual offender treatment: Controversial issues. Chichester, Sussex: John Wiley & Sons.

McConville, S. (Ed.). (2003). The use of punishment. Cullompton, Devon: Willan.

McGuire, J. (Ed.). (2002). Offender rehabilitation and treatment: Effective programmes and policies to reduce reoffending. Chichester, Sussex: John Wiley & Sons.

McIvor, G. (Ed.). (2004). Women who offend. London: Jessica Kingsley.

Oswald, M. E., Bieneck, S., & Hupfeld-Heinemann J. (Eds.). (2009). Social psychology of punishment of crime. Chichester, Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.

Walker, N. (1991). Why punish? Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Winstone, J., & Pakes, F. (Eds.). (2005). Community justice: Issues for probation and criminal justice. Cullompton, Devon: Willan.

Weblinks

The is a great deal of information about the death penalty at:

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org

http://www.amnesty.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=78

http://www.criminaljusticedegreesguide.com/features/10-infamous-cases-of-wrongful-execution.html

There are discussions about cases of wrongful conviction to be found at: http://www.innocenceproject.org

All you want to know about forensic psychiatry ... http://www.forensicpsychiatry.ca/risk/instruments.htm

... and restorative justice: http://www.sfu.ca/cfrj/popular.html

Finally, there is a great deal of information about the organismal side of justice at HM Courts and Tribunal Service: http://www.justice.gov.uk/about/hmcts

Study Questions

Open Questions

Why do we now hold the view, which was not always the case, that the punishment should fit the crime?

Should the means and severity of punishment within a given jurisdiction be decided by politicians, the legal profession or the electorate?

Should people sent to prison lose all their civil and human rights, including the right to vote?

Why should anyone expect a combination of deterrence, discipline and training, as seen in boot camps, to reduce crime?

If the death penalty reduced crime would that be a justification for its adoption?