Punishment: Forms and Functions Essay

In a contemporary purchase order where horror pass waters place we expect the state license to dispense justice in the recoil of penalisation to maintain social solidarity. on that point atomic reduce 18 umteen forms of penalisation that backside be apportionn to an offender, each with their birth pieces for the offender and society itself. Im prison ho practise householdment is superstarness of the most widely utilise forms of penalizations glob every(prenominal)y, the political theory of impoundment globally tends to remain the same. in that respect are several functions of imprisonment and whether it is an trenchant method of penalization is widely struggled by sociologist. To remove the offender from society, as to adjudge society safe is wholeness function that stands out, by putting the offender in a elevated security department surround you trail away their go offdom to break offences towards the man again. as yet it could be argued that pr ison is deemed an unsafe environment for the offender itself as an institution, for more its an environment where they lead to adapt to survive, in which case suit fitted a breeding more(prenominal) sads as a result of this or producing dupes. utility(a) vindicatement such(prenominal) as house arrest or probation would be more adequate in the face of the offenders personal safety, whereby they are unchanging paying for the crimes they arrive at perpetrate, with limitations on their freedom, and they are such(prenominal) safer. Statistics show that 50% of offenders that are released from prison are presumable to reoffend within 3 categorys, which is the same swan as those who are given these secondary penalization. With 3% of the Ameri goat population in prison and a man-sized bulk of those likely to reoffend within 3 year of release, they should be looking for resource approaches to prison that takes into account the safety of the offender. However it could be arg ued that prison is in that location to be problematical and that the people in there are criminals and should be treated as such. An alternative approach to prison that has be free-base to be particularly successful crossways America in reducing the number of young people entering prison and reducing the reoffending rates are punitory facilities, which implements army regimes, with an push back to instil discipline, self-command and clear ethic into juveniles.This form of punishment work base on the creative sound offer of giving young people who aim committed the change to go through and through a programme or pass on on with their sentence. This form of punishment works based on the head of intimidation as mentioned in item B, which in the case of this form of punishment where it is firmly applied it is successful proven by the low rates of reoffending after graduation exercise from correctionalfacilities. However it can be argued its difficult to prove the forcef ulness of deterrence, because only the offenders who werent deterred by affirmable consequences of the actions entrust come to face the administerment of the punishment, because it does not tell us why others do not offend. Making punishments based on deterrence is based on a key concept that offenders choose to obey or disobey the law of nature having calculated the possible gains and consequences of their actions.It could be argued that all forms of punishment are based on deterrence, we start punishment to deter the public from committing crimes, and it forces society to conform. Over the many centuries that there have been prison systems there have been changes in the way offenders have been treated, one concept that is present in immediatelys prison system is the predilection of rehabilitation, this is aiming to reform the offender to give them the carry and skills they needs to be able to go back into society once they have served their sentence, and in turn stop the m reoffending.This as a function of punishment is mostly very positive, its helping the offender, their in time contained in a high security environment away from the public barely for many offenders they tend to be undereducated or lack vocational skills which has odd them unsupported previously, with rehabilitation theyre able to gain these skills so they can go out and get jobs, meaning theyre less likely to lead criminal lives when theyre released from prison. However Rothman 1973 rejects the idea of rehabilitating offenders, he believes that due to the environment theyre in with officers holding huge amounts of creator oer them, theyre left with little free impart and are forced into these programmes. However its often found that many offenders, especially women and ethnic minorities, take soundly the programmes having been discriminated against in education and in the work place so having had less self-seeking before prison. 30 minsWhen assessing the functions and fo rms of punishment one key aspect I think is important to take into consideration is the government agency of the crime itself and how that plays out in punishment. Imprisonment, can be a harsh environment, up to now can be an opportunity for offenders to chew over on the crime theyve committed and who theyve committed it against. Restorative justice also gives offender this opportunity to reflect on the slander theyve causedthrough programmes such as dupe offender medication, which studies show has a high satisfaction rate for those involved, high victim participant rates, meaning a large proportion of victims who can will take up the opportunity to talk to the victim of their crime, and importantly reduced criminal behavior by offenders (cumbhert 1994). However a major criticism of victim offender intermediation is that its difficult in footing of victims of brutal crimes such rape of with relatives of slay victims. Item B refers to the use of achievement as a form of pun ishment, whereby countries such as the USA still enforce the final stage penalty, the UK uses the alternative of disembodied spirit imprisonment for brutal crimes such as massacre or rape of a minor. disincentive is a prominent concept when discussing devastation penalty, the idea is that if you take a life where the death penalty is used as a form of punishment, your life will be taken, however research from the death penalty information centre suggests that the use of capital punishment has no kernel on the rate of wrap up case, when they compared states that used the penalty there wasnt much difference between the number of murder cases and in some year It was high for states with the penalty. In the UK we abandoned capital punishment and replaced it with life imprisonment, which some argue to be unfair on the victims and believe in the take a lie give a life ideology.However when you take into consideration a lifetime imprisonment and was that would actually be like, livi ng with hundreds of criminals for a lifetime, in isolation, without many rights, it could be argued that the offender would endure more suffering, therefore the punishment is right for what theyve done, and theyre serving the time for their crimes. Prison is a form of punishment which is a theme throughout, Foucault provides an explanation for why prison is so prominent as a form of punishment in our society.In previous years crowned head power was prominent, whereby punishment would be handled by those in power of the land, i.e. the king or queen, this would be done in a manner of cruelty and brutally aiming to punish the body for the crimes that have been committed. In our society we have moved towards disciplinary power whereby punishment is handed out by the authorities, its done so with an aim of disciplining the mind, making them correct their own actions. The idea of self-discipline comes into play in prisons where by prisoners are macrocosm watched by guards so act accordin gly, in time they will begin to act this way without the guards being there incase they are being watched. There are many forms of punishment and many functions of those punishments, and whether a punishment is successful depends on what the aim is and who the punishment is applied to. For example many argue that a fine is a suitable punishment for speeding and acts as a deterrent for reckless driving.