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¶ … prisons have vacillated between taking a primarily punitive approach to prison inmates and in looking for ways to treat the problems that brought them to that state. These cycles occur because often neither therapy nor punishment prevents inmates from repeating their patterns of crime once they are released. This may be partly because our prisons have not always completely thought the therapeutic process through, but it is also partly because of the nature of the types of people who end up in prison.
One of the types crimes the general public is most concerned about involves sexual attacks. The public knows that both pedophiles and rapists tend to repeat their behavior once released from prison. As a result, many prisons have therapeutic groups for sex offenders. In many cases, the participants choose to attend these groups (Swift, 1998). Research in Canada on the efficacy of these interventions gave startling results: the men who were most cooperative in the prison groups were the ones...
Success in the therapy group correlated with sexual crimes when released.
The idea of including therapy groups in prison stemmed from experience with non-incarcerated people, where for both depression and eating disorders, those who cooperated with treatment had the best outcomes. What the prison reformers failed to note was that for people not in prison, the choice to go into therapy was a voluntary one. By comparison, many prisoners join treatment groups not because they want to get better but because they want to reduce the amount of time they serve (Swift, 1998). So, they acted like model participants. The prisoners who displayed more negative behavior in groups, such as refusing to write letters of apology to their victims or stomping out of group meetings in anger, actually repeated their crimes less often than those who superficially cooperated. Unfortunately, some participants played the game of…
Bibliography
Lovell, David. 1998. "Coping with Mental Illness in Prisons." Family and Community Health, October.
Swift, Diana. 1998. "When bad men do good: a prison study reveals that for sex offenders, positive treatment behavior is more likely to predict relapse." Medical Post, September 15.
Treatment vs. Punishment Treatment Concept Juvenile crime is often serious because of the ability to represent a significant proportion in relation to the total criminal activity within the community. The normal assumption indicates that adolescents deserve and require special handling during the formative period. Criminal behavior during this stage of life might not continue into adulthood thus the need for integration of special handling by the relevant justice systems within the case
I maintain that all living things share an understanding that actions have consequence. I believe that even complex underlying psychological and sociological issues can be circumvented by directly addressing such most fundamental knowledge. As for deterrence, I believe that the retributive system can in itself serve as a future deterrent, even if it does not do so intentionally. As mentioned, Kant held that any criminal activity is not only a
Punishment in the U.S. Correctional System IN ITS RIGHTFUL PLACE AND FORM Punishment in the U.S. Corrections System Objectives of Punishment These are to punish the offender, to protect the population from him or her, and to rehabilitate him or her (eNotes, 2013; Law Link, 2003). The first goal of punishment is theoretically intended to discourage or deter a repeat of the offense and a demonstration of why it should be avoided. The most
I do, however, contend that appropriate rehabilitation programs will make this at least unlikely. On the other hand, one must acknowledge that such rehabilitation programs are not always available and often not appropriate to the specific person having committed the crime. Hence, what I am suggesting is that more research be commissioned to create better ways of responding to various criminal offenses. Offenders of certain petty crimes, for example, can
Edwards. O., Mumford, V., Shillingford, M., & Serra-Roldan, R. (Jul 2007). Developmental assets: A prevention framework for students considered at risk. Children & Schools, 29(3). Retrieved October 20, 2009, from Academic Search Complete database. Edwards, Mumford, Shillingford, and Serra-Roldan (2007) explored the topic of identifying and treatment of students who were considered at risk for failing school. They note that the traditional medical model surmises that there is a disease entity
When viewed from that perspective, it becomes understandable that a jury could not eliminate the second story beyond a reasonable doubt, and, therefore, had to acquit Michael of the crime. Psychological treatment of suspect Given America's complex racial history, it is no surprise that race is oftentimes seen as a significant factor in rape. There is no doubt that black men have been unfairly targeted as rapists in America. This is