Ideological Goal Of Punishment Essay Research Paper

Ideological Goal Of Punishment Essay, Research Paper

FINAL EXAM QUESTION 1: In your opinion, which goal of punishment best represents the ideological approach of the criminal justice system throughout its history. Substantiate your argument by selecting a goal of punishment and discussing several examples of criminal justice policies that exemplify the goal of punishment. (30 points) I believe Incapacitation best represents the ideological approach of the criminal justice system. Incapacitation seeks to reduce crime by imprisoning repeat offenders (Walker, 129). We keep criminals off the streets so that they are unable to commit a crime against society. Incapacitation seeks to reduce crime by imprisoning repeat offenders. If we keep the criminals in twice as long, we will prevent twice as many crimes. As a sentencing philosophy, incapacitation does not try to rehabilitate offenders; it is only intended to get them off the streets (Walker 129). Selective incapacitation is designs to lock up only the “high rate” offenders. This targets career criminals to long term prison sentences (Walker 129). Selective incapacitation was one of the biggest ideas in the criminal justice system in the 1970s and 1980s. James Q. Wilson wrote “serious crime could be reduced by one-third if each person convicted of a serious crime received a mandatory three-year prison sentence” (129). Wolf Gang s birth cohort study followed almost 10,000 children less than 18 years old. His objective was to determine how many of these individuals actually committed the majority of crime. His findings showed that only 6% of these children had five or more interactions with the system. This proves that selective incapacitation would reduce crime. The problem is that it is very difficult to determine the 6% of repeat criminals (Johnson, 2000). Gross incapacitation involves locking up many people and sending them to prison for a long time (Walker 132). The three strikes and your out law is a very popular form of incapacitation. This law makes it mandatory for someone who commits a third felony to be locked up for life. The idea became popular after a Richard Davis committed a brutal murder in California, three months after he was paroled (Walker140). The problem with this is that many criminals could receive life sentences for committing minor offense such as stealing. Physical Incapacitation is probably the harshest form of incapacitation known to man. This was used commonly through history. If a criminal was caught stealing, his hand would be severed. This was not safe considering the medical knowledge of that time (Johnson 2000). I strongly believe this would deter 75% of crime today, although I would never support it due to legality and moral issues. Physical isolation is another form of incapacitation. Criminals could be sent to different countries such as Australia. Unfortunately, this will not happen because incapacitation s primary goal is to get the offender away from society while it s secondary goal is whether the offender will come back. QUESTION 2:Discuss the prediction problem. Explain its origins in research and how it led to specific programs designed to aid in crime control. Also, discuss examples of conservative and liberal policies that exemplify this problem. What are the problems with this approach to society. In your opinion should criminal justice policy continue to follow this approach to crime control. Why or Why not. (30 pts) The prediction problem has to deal with Wolfgang’s cohort study. This particularstudy traced the careers of all males living in Philadelphia in 1945 through their eighteenth birthday in 1963. Using official records, the study used the criminal careers of a sample of 9,945 juveniles. The finding was that a small percentage of delinquents are responsible for a majority of all crimes and for about two-thirds of all violent crimes (Walker 62-63). This pattern was repeated a number of times. It highlighted a pattern: most delinquents stop committing illegal acts at some point, and most stop relatively early. The amount of undetected criminality is an important question. Although we are not good at guessing, if we could find the remaining six percent and control them we would have less crime to start with (Johnson, 2000). Basic methods for prediction of crime consist of an actuarial approach, prior history and clinical evaluation. The actuarial approach relies on patterns of behavior among individuals with similar characteristics. Insurance companies use this method to determine who high risk drivers are (Walker 67). Prior history predicts that if you have done something poorly in the past, chances are you will do the same thing poorly again (67) Clinical evaluation predicts future behavior on the assessments of trained experts. Psychologists can construct personal interviews and possibly administer a psychological test (67). Rehabilitation assumes a good match between offender and treatment programs. Treatment programs are effective for some offenders, but it is not quite as easy to determine who needs which treatment. Preventive detention, on the other hand, points out the defendants likely to commit a crime on bail and to detain them and only them. Concerning parole and the prediction problem, conservatives and liberals especially have attacked this problem. Liberals have criticized it as unsound. In one California correctional research, Liberals have found there is no evidence tha