The British Penal System

DETERRENCE: this theory is based on the idea that if a person commits a crime and is punished accordingly then they will hopefully not commit such a crime or any other crime again as they have learned what the consequences are for such a crime. The theory also aims to deter others from committing crimes, as they are also well aware of the consequences of such a crime.

REFORM: this theory suggests that people who commit crimes are often in need of help. The punishment they should receive should be of nature that will prevent them from committing further crimes for example rehabilitation programs. Society believes that this theory will help them develop into responsible citizens and ensure that they play role within society.

VINDICATION: the last aim of punishment states that in order for society to function securely and appropriately any crime must be punished accordingly as it is an act prohibited by the law, and therefore by means of punishment the law is respected.

In the past there have been a number of harsh punishments, which were issued to offenders for the pettiest crimes. However up to the present day punishments are now less severe than they were in the past. However it is still important to discuss punishments in the past and their suitability. Punishments in the past were:

Corporal Punishment is simply referred to as physical punishment. It is mainly in the form of a beating or flogging. This form of punishment is till common in many Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. This kind of punishment is not performed in this country. Many people may believe that the pain experienced by the offender during this punishment may help them to deter them of crime; however there is no real significant evidence, which implies that it is effective. In some cases it maybe considered that it could even make the offender less disciplined, more anti-social and violent therefore more of a danger to society.

Community Pay-Back, different forms of anti social behaviour maybe punished by community service orders. The offender will be ordered to contribute their services to the community by repairing village halls, social clubs, community centres etc, or help the elderly or disabled. The aim of this punishment is to inform the offender that now they have the responsibility to pay backs something to the society for their actions. This form of punishment is probably one of the most suitable to enforce because it eradicates the idea for an offender to be sent to prison. Therefore decreasing chance of re-offending because it can be said that if an offender goes to prison where they are in the same environment as other offenders they can teach other on how to perform criminal activity. This form of punishment also suitable because when carrying out the community service it may help them realize what they done was wrong and helps them to become a major contributor to society. An important quote, which should be stated because of its significance to the suitability of community sentences, is as follows, "Most young offenders grow out of crime as they become more mature and responsible. They need encouragement and help to become law abiding. Even a short period of custody is quite likely to confirm them as criminals". (Home Office Circular 59/90). This is reliable evidence because it is coming from a government source. I personally agree with this quote by sending offenders to prison will only confirm them as real criminals.

Three Strikes and your out! This policy has been the subject of the most controversy. This law was introduced after the horrific murder of a 12 year old girl called Polly Klaas in 1993. Her abductor and murderer Richard Allen Davis was a 3 time offender who was on parole. In the wake of this horrific crime 3 strikes was introduced and a minimum of 25 years was the penalty. It's not enforced within the UK, however is practiced within some parts of the United States. Its policy is that people who receive three convictions-however minor the offences-face life imprisonment. This policy is somewhat a mockery of the legal system. It has a main effect on society because it forces them to give offenders another chance even after their wrong doing activity. It will also allow offenders to commit two offences and get away with it, which in my opinion is not an appropriate way for the legal system to deal with such offenders. But as always there is another side to this punishment, an American is unbelievably serving 25 years in jail for stealing a slice of pizza, this is ridiculous when for example rapists get lighter sentences at times.

Hit the Pocket, this is where punishment comes in the form of fines. Fines are very common form of punishment. By placing fines on offenders it can be said that by fining an offender is the only real place where it hurts. Offenders will therefore make sure that they will not re-offend because they simply cannot afford the fines they are ordered to pay. However if the fine cannot be met it may even encourage the offender to perform further criminal activity to make sure that the fine is paid. Also if fines are issued to large corporations or governments the fine maybe to small to cause damage to the corporation.

Going to Jail, Imprisonment has always been used as a form of punishment. In the past prisons were once awful places to go and living conditions were below standards. Some in prisons have improved since then however a minority are still in a bad way. Figures released show that in many countries the number of people being sent to jail has increased dramatically for example in the United States the prison population has almost trebled during the years 1980-1998, reaching a record of 1.7 million people which is currently ranked five times higher than the average European figure. The suitability of prison is very debatable, does it work or does it encourage re-offending? In the UK in the early 1900's the government believed that imprisonment was one of the most effective methods of reducing. However the government have clearly assumed wrong because the number of people going to prison has increased.

In any one prison there can be a number people who have committed a number of different crimes such as murder, pick pocketed, rape drink driving and fraud they are all grouped together.

Personally I think that all of these people who have committed these crimes should not be grouped together but split apart from each other and there be should specialized institutions for the offender to go to. By using this approach it would most likely reduce the chance of the offender re-offending when they come out. Because it can be said that sending an offender to a typical prison and mixing with everyone and learning from them can most probably increase the chances of the offender re-offending.

I feel along with many other critics that it was a big mistake to take capitol punishment away from our country. Crime in this country is increasing dramatically and I do not feel that the law today does enough. The media in society today is a very powerful tool which influences and expresses public opinion regarding the law. I have looked through different newspapers and pulled out a few articles that have appealed to me. Some articles were expressing views about the law and how the law has been enforced to "get tough with teenagers" this can be seen as an improvement as young offenders now commit many crimes.

Some articles were quite worrying as many members of the public expressed opinions about not having respect for the law. There were certain sentences passed that were not considered fair. Members of the family's victims were outraged and felt that was in other people's best interest to share their views. One mothers son was killed in a road accident and the sentence passed was a fine and a one-year driving ban. The mother was understandably horrified that her son's life was taken and the accused paid for his way out of prison. It is article headlines such as "mum let down by law" and "cyclist's window 'has lost respect for law" this makes people start to think our system is turning into. The mentioned articles headers were all in the space of ten days, if headlines like these are going to appear regularly in the papers then the public are going to show a cause of concern and questions will be asked.

The media plays a very big part in today's modern society as it is always in the public's eye. The media is a very powerful weapon and can cause tremendous strain and pressures within society. With articles headlines like the ones above it can cause great conflict between the public and the people responsible for crime prevention. Political members are faced everyday with crime questions and accusations. Recently on GMTV an MP was interviewed about crime and he had statistics thrown at him and questions from the public about crime. He was bombarded with accusations that the government does not do enough to prevent crime and that there should be more done.

A very moral and ethical issue that is still argued for and against today is capitol punishment, should it be brought back? This question is always raised and it does make people wonder if it would work a lot better. It was in 1955 where the last woman was hanged for killing her boyfriend in Britain. Ruth Ellis shot her boyfriend five times before being arrested and three weeks and three days later she was hung.

If she carried out this horrific crime today she would probably get life and could be out in 20-25 years. I strongly believe that if human being takes a persons life that that one person's life should also be taken. Since the abolishment of capitol punishment crime has increased by 9.3% many people feel that capitol punishment made people think before any violent actions were committed and really taught a lesson to those who committed the crimes.

In any society whether it be 50 or 60 years ago there is always a need and a must for some system to try and prevent crime. Our penal system helps the public to feel safe and to know that there is something that helps prevent crime. Any society needs to have a penal system, crime cannot go unmissed, as this would cause total chaos, and there are boundaries and rules to abide by. The law is straightforward, do not break it and you do not get punished, but this is not always the case.

If a crime has been committed and action has been taken then it makes people, the public, feel good about having that system present but justice is not always achieved. There are so many cases that have been unsolved or wrongly interpreted and there are still criminals out there and this is not what the public want. Crime has decreased since 1995 but critics argue that it still is not enough; more should have been done. Our penal system does give people justice but there could be more motivation from the people and more positives if the system was reformed.

In 1982 the first British crime survey was conducted and provided national figures for the fear of crime. Over 11,000 households in England and Wales participated.

The survey posed questions such as "Are you afraid to walk out alone after dark?" and others similar to this. The results of the survey are shown on the next page.

Are you afraid to walk out alone after dark?

Inner other larger city other

Cities areas areas

Men

6-30 3% 1% 1%

31-60 11% 3% 1%

60+ 27% 12% 6%

Women

6-30 28% 18% 11%

31-60 38% 21% 13%

60+ 60% 41% 29%

These results shown that it is the female sex who feel more threatened by crime and more specifically elderly women who live in inner cities. When asked about dealing with this problem many peoples response was simply that they would avoid going out. The above statistics were from 1982 and these facts are even more so increased today and this just proves how much crime has grown.

It makes today's society uneasy about how they lead their lives. Crime needs to be stopped and it is only the penal system that is going to allow this to happen. If we reformed the system and made it better then the crime is surely going to decrease even more. Capital punishment is a big controversial issue in Britain, even over 100 years ago. It did not leave Britain completely until 1963. During the period 1800 to 1964 some 5,508 people suffered death by hanging in Britain, it was a big event. When hangings were still publicised many people would gather in the town square to watch, it would be a day out for most people. Torturing would still been a common punishment for crime committers 100 years ago and many people would have been satisfied with the punishment. This is good justice to me, people receiving the pain for the crime, they would feel the pain other victims felt. Historically crime has been punished in a physical way. Prison in the past 200 years has led us to a model of educating and trying to change rather than just punish.

Today there is a lot of probation and community service sentencing and sometimes this can help. I think that these opinions should be available to first time crime committers but for people who keep committing crimes I really do not feel that prison sentences works. Many critics arguably feel that torturing and capital punishment would defiantly make a difference in crime related issues. Prison conditions years ago were horrific and I am sure that if the prisoners of today were faced with treacherous conditions then they would think twice about committing another crime. In today's modern and controversial society the prisons offer a wide range of help for prisoners. Education and career options are available and that conditions are much more substantial. It was about 200 years ago John Howard started the penal reform. Conditions were terrible and disgusting and they were right to be improved to some extent. It is a well known argument that too much money from government funding is plummeted into the penal system. Crime committers already get away with too much and if capital punishment were brought back then everything would seem adequate again. The level of crime would possibly fall.

Capitol punishment has always been a controversial issue. Some critics argue that if someone takes a life and were considered evil then what gives us "the people" a right to kill. This argument is undoubtedly very true as there are still many cases that are still questioned today. If people are wrongly executed then there is nothing that any one person can do. This critic of the penal system does have a fair point, unless there is hard evidence or the accused admits to a crime then there is not any body that can determine the truth. Many people feel however if capital punishment were brought back it would lower the crime numbers. It would be a more definite punishment where as if a person is placed into prison then there cases can be appealed against and justice might not be rewarded to the victims. It is not just the big cases though that need to be looked at with our penal system it is the simple cases such as drink driving and G.B.H that need to be looked at drastically. Young offenders are certainly on the increase and it is vital that these are targeted. As in one of the statistics tables previous, many people are afraid to leave their homes. If the system was reformed then this is another problem that could be resolved.

There are always going to be arguments that support and define each topic but the penal system is a very controversial issue and it always will be what is right and what is wrong? These issues need to be looked at accordingly. Critics argue that more should be done to prevent more crimes and they want capital punishment brought back to Britain. Other critics argue against this proposal, as they want a more subtle approach to be taken towards crime.

Capital punishment I think defiantly made people think twice about committing offences but sometimes people need help when they have committed a crime. Take for example young offenders and drug users, many of these cases come from broken homes and they need attention and help when they have committed a crime to try and improve their lives. It is the crime committers who keep on doing crime and not paying the time that influences the potential capital punishment supporter. These people are the ones who need to be taught valuable lessons and sometimes torture or even death is the only way.

Looking at conflicting and controversial arguments makes people think about what is the right approach? There is no right approach to any situation but when a crime is involved then it is a necessity that the right action is taken. There are many unsatisfied victims who still want their justice and our system obviously does not prove worthy to these particular people. Death and torture is not the answer to everything but it certainly is another option that should be considered being brought back into the country, if not for the safety of us but for the safety of those who even commit the crimes. One of the articles mentioned earlier "mum let down by law" shows a very dramatic point about the penal system. Her son died in a street attack and his mother was "very upset with the sentence given to the three boys". The mother, Maureen Swan made a very good point that if she robbed a bank then she would have had a longer sentence than those who killed her son. This article would support the critics who want to bring back capital punishment; crime committers need to be taught more of a lesson.

Punishment is a very sensitive issue bit I think that from looking at the statistics and arguments that capital punishment should be brought back to Britain as a last resort. It defiantly made a difference 50, 60 even 100 years ago, so it obviously would make a difference today. There are always going to be moral and controversial issues in society, but as a modern and contemporary society we need to evolve. We are an evolutionary not revolutionary society and if crime is brought down even more then we can defiantly concentrate on other issues and not worry about crime. Crime is always going to be present in any society but if using other methods controls it more, such as capital punishment then, people can certainly feel at ease and will be less critical. So although the penal system is slightly effective I feel there can be major improvements to stop crime happening so often. On the next page there are two extracts out of newspapers showing relative issues to this coursework.

Bibliography

Internet sites- www.google.com & www.yahoo.com

'Is the British penal system effective?'

Books- "The book about crime"

"How is Britain affected by crime?"

Newspapers- South Wales Argus & the Sun

Luke Morrish 12BT Mr Thomas