Overview
When someone is hurt or wronged, a common response is to strike back. It occurs at both the individual and societal levels. Hurts are to be punished, but not unduly so. Fairness and justice must also apply. In almost all societies, punishment is a consequence of breaking the law, and the application of punishment is highly regulated. There are many purposes for punishment within the criminal justice system. They include retribution, denunciation of the act, and deterrence. This chapter touches upon these varying purposes, but the focus is on the deterrent function of punishment.
The “get tough” movement has failed miserably to reduce recidivism and crime. On the contrary, it may have been criminogenic. Certainly, relying on deterrence has not led to justice and it has caused economic and emotional hardships to the perpetrators, their families, victims, and the community at-large. Why getting tough has failed is explained by the psychology of punishment. The chapter ends with a review of a more humane alternative to punishment: restorative justice.
Videos
Applying the RNR Model to Community Supervision
Part 1: Tough on Crime
In the first section of his MHS webinar, Applying the RNR Model to Community Supervision, James Bonta explores the ‘Tough on Crime’ approach to offender treatment that led to the conception of the RNR model.
The full version of this video can be found on the Videos page of this website.
Discussion questions:
- Dr. Bonta lists the conditions that are required for punishment to work. How do these conditions relate to the typical prison system and population?
Punishment and Quackery
In this video, Dr Babchishin explores the meaning of correctional punishment. She explains some of the flaws of correctional punishment within criminal justice systems and the reasons why it persists.
Everything you wanted to know about prisons
Dr. Gendreau is one of the two founding members of what has come to be known as the Canadian School of Rehabilitation, which developed the risk/need/responsivity paradigm for offender rehabilitation.
During his distinguished career, Dr. Gendreau has received recognition throughout North America for his contribution to correctional psychology. In 1974 he was seconded to the office of Prime Minister Michael Manley as Head, Gun Control legislation and Co-Director, Development off Correctional Treatment Programs, Ministry of National Security & Justice in Jamaica, and in 1983 to Deputy Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer of New Zealand to investigate psychological services in the Department of Justice. Alongside his work as an educator at the University of New Brunswick at Saint John throughout the 90s and early 2000s (thereafter Professor Emeritus), he was consultant to the Saint John Police Force, and served on various committees and task forces for Correctional Services Canada; Health and Welfare Canada; Auditor General Canada; the American Probation and Parole Association and the American Psychological Association. In 2011 he was responsible for heading up a review on the quality of offender programmes in the Department of Corrections for the New Zealand government Expenditure Review task force. In 2022 he was appointed as a consultant to the Long Term Insights Briefing regarding imprisonment for Aotearoa New Zealand Government.
In 2007 he received the highest honour applicable to a citizen of Canada when he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada “for seminal contributions to correctional theory and practice … achievement and merit of a high degree, especially service to Canada or to humanity at large”.
He has published over 200 articles and book chapters and delivered 350 invited addresses in academic and public settings on effective correctional treatment (RNR), the prediction of criminal behaviour, the evaluation of offender treatment programmes and the effects of prison life. He is the senior author of the Correctional Program Assessment Inventory, an assessment tool that has been widely used in North America and elsewhere to evaluate offender treatment programmes.
In this video, Dr. Gendreau reviews the three major theories of the effects of prison-life: deterrence; schools of crime, and psychological deep-freeze. He explores the implications of these theories for prison management, and outlines the prison literature on risk prediction and treatment. He concludes by discussing the controversial question of extreme conditions of confinement.
The End of American Exceptionalism
Francis T. Cullen, Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus of Criminal Justice and Senior Research Associate at the University of Cincinnati, won the 2022 Stockholm Prize in Criminology for his research into offender rehabilitation strategies, and his campaign to protect rehabilitation from increasing policy changes and political mandates.
Professor Cullen’s career began with a B.A in Sociology from Bridgewater State University (1972), closely followed by an M.A. (1974) and P.H.D. (1979) in Sociology and Education from Columbia University. He has published over 500 works in the areas of crime and deviance theory, corrections, public opinion, white collar crime and sexual victimisation. He has served as President of both the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (1993-4) and the American Society of Criminology (2003-4), Chairperson of the Crime and Juvenile Delinquency Division of the Society for the Study of Social Problems (1987-1989), and Editor of the Journal of Crime and Justice (1984-1986) and Justice Quarterly (1987-1989).
In this speech, delivered at the Stockholm Criminology Symposium in June 2022 (beginning 35 minutes into this video), Dr. Cullen explores his extraordinary career through the pattern of the rise and decline of mass incarceration in the United States. He poses the idea that the period of mass incarceration in the United States has come to an end, and answers the question: what now?
https://www.youtube.com/embed/IDYChFJghII
Discussion questions:
- Professor Francis Cullen posits that mass incarceration in the United States is at an end. As we move towards a new era of correctional policy, what will be the lasting effects of the Get Tough approach outlined here by Professor Bonta in Chapter 13?
Worth Remembering
- “Getting tough” has failed miserably in achieving the goals of fairness, cost-effectiveness, and enhancing public safety. Mandatory sentences, three-strikes, and harsher sentences have affected minorities disproportionately and at enormous costs. The costs are measured not only in monetary terms but also in terms of social consequences. With respect to deterrence, “getting tough” does not explain the reduction in crime rates seen over the past decade, and it has had no impact on recidivism. Despite what politicians think the public wants, when given the complete picture, most public opinion surveys show people are open to less punitive interventions.
- The psychology of punishment shows that punishment will only “work” under very specific conditions, conditions that the criminal justice system cannot duplicate. Laboratory studies of punishment clearly show that for punishment to be effective it must follow the behavior with certainty and immediacy and at the right intensity. Furthermore, punishment has many undesirable “side effects” that are counterproductive in the suppression of antisocial behavior.
- Restorative justice, a more respectful and inclusive approach for dealing with those who hurt victims and the community, may offer a viable alternative to “get tough” approaches in reducing crime. There is a shift underway from an obsession with punishing the justice-involved persons to more humane approaches for dealing with them. The growing influence of restorative justice and renewed interest in treatment reflect a dissatisfaction with the adversarial and punitive orientation of the present justice system. How far the influence of restorative justice will reach remains to be seen. Rehabilitation, however, already has made tremendous inroads and holds a promising future.
Quiz
Further Reading
Azrin, N. H., & Holz, W. C. (1966). Punishment. In W. K. Honig (Ed.), Operant behavior: Areas of research and application (pp. 380–447). New York, NY: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Maahs, J., & Pratt, T. C. (2017). “I hate these little turds!”: Science, entertainment, and the enduring popularity of Scared Straight programs. Deviant Behavior, 38, 47-60.
Petrich, D. M., Pratt, T. C., Jonson, C. L., & Cullen, F. T. (2021). Custodial sanctions and reoffending: A meta-analytic review. Crime and Justice, 50, 353-424.
Sullivan, D., & Tifft, L. (2005, Eds.), Handbook of restorative justice. NY: Routledge.
Tonry, M. (2021). Doing Justice in Sentencing. In M. Tonry (Ed.), Crime and Justice: A review of research, 50 (pp. 1-12). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.