CCJS 100 Final Exam Study Guide Chapters 9 15 Punishment and Sentencing Chapter 9 Target Questions What are the different goals of punishment Retribution Idea that bad behaviors deserve to be punished Eye for an eye Offenders must pay their debts Punishment should be proportional to the severity of the crime Deterrence The punishment of a criminal behavior must just outweigh the benefits that would be received by committing the act When the pros outweigh the cons people won t want to engage in the Also states that punishment must be swift certain and appropriately behavior severe to deter Assumptions People are rational and think before they commit crime Doesn t account for people who commit crimes while drunk high in strong emotional state mentally ill acting impulsively General deterrence Members of the general public will not want to commit crime after observing others being punished This deters the public in general By seeing someone else get punished public learns that such behavior is bad and has bad consequences Makes the public not want to engage in behavior Specific deterrence Punishing people who commit crimes so they won t want to commit crimes again in the future This deters a specific person someone who committed criminal act Through punishment they realize that their behavior is wrong and has bad consequences They then do not want to commit crime in the future Incapacitation crimes Remove offenders from society so they cannot continue to commit We incapacitate offenders by sending them to jail prison or death Rehabilitation The goal is not necessarily retribution although it is a method of achieving retribution Goal is really to prevent offender from causing more harm in the community Focus is then on characteristics of offender priors etc instead of severity of the offense Assumptions and concerns Offender will commit future crimes However not all offenders will be repeat offenders Is it fair to punish people for what they might do Selective incapacitation Can be hard to determine who will continue to commit crimes One way to guess is to look at prior offending Selective incapacitation gives long sentences to offenders who repeatedly commit a certain crime Laws around selective incapacitation are 3 strikes laws 3 strike laws give mandatory lengthy sentence when someone commits a third offense of a certain kind Focuses on the offender Idea is that offender committed crime because of some flaw Flaw is some social psychological or biological imperfection or deficit By fixing this deficit offender can reenter society as productive citizen Fix offender through training or therapy some treatment program Ex drug treatment employment training cognitive behavior therapy Concerns No relationship between rehabilitative treatment and seriousness of the offense Are treatment programs effective at rehabilitating offenders Might be stuck in prison until you re fixed What happens if someone can t be rehabilitated Not widely used but growing in popularity Views crime as more than violation of the law Also violation of community trust feelings of safety etc Tries to restore the balance between the offender the victim and the community Ex make public apologies mediation pay victim for damages community service to repair the community Also tries to tailor punishment to type of crime Ex offender who vandalized homes might have to do community service where he she cleans graffiti off of buildings Restorative justice What are some of the legal concerns surrounding the death penalty The conviction of innocent people The cost of capitol trials Public is split on whether to use the death penalty of not Key Terminology Retribution Punishment inflicted on a person who has harmed others so deserves to be punished Deterrence General Deterrence Presumes that members of the general public are observing the punishment of others will conclude that the costs of crime outweigh the benefits Specific Deterrence Targets the decisions and behaviors of offenders who have already been convicted Incapacitation Depriving an offender of the ability to commit crimes against society usually by detaining the offender in prison Rehabilitation The goal of restoring a convicted offender to a constructive place in society through some form of vocational or educational training or therapy Restorative justice Punishment designed to repair the damage done to the victim and the community by an offender s criminal act Indeterminate sentences A period set by a judge that specifies a minimum and maximum time to be served in prison Sometime after the minimum the offender may be eligible for parole Determinate sentences A sentence that fixes the term of imprisonment at a specific period Mandatory sentences A sentence determined by statutes and requiring that a certain penalty be imposed and carried out for convicted offenders who meet certain criteria Good time credit A reduction of an inmate s prison sentence at the discretion of the prison administrator for good behavior or participation in vocational educational or treatment programs Truth in sentencing refers to the laws the require offenders to serve a substantial proportion usually 85 for violent crimes of their prison sentence before being released on parole increases prison populations at a tremendous cost Intermediate sanctions A variety of punishments that are more restrictive than traditional probation but less severe and costly than incarceration Probation The most commonly used punishment A sentence that the offender is allowed to serve under supervision in the community Atkins v Virginia Execution of developmentally disabled offenders is unconstitutional Roper v Simmons Execution of offenders for crimes committed while under the age of 18 is unconstitutional Presentence report A report prepared by a probations officer that presents a convicted offender s background and is used by the judge in selecting an appropriate sentence Sentencing guidelines A mechanism to indicate to judges the expected sanction for certain offenses in order to reduce disparities in sentences Target Questions Corrections Chapter 10 What are the key differences of the correctional eras and what contributed to its continual evolution How did corrections evolve in the South and West What was the goal of punishment during each of the eras How did the National Prison Association s Declaration of Principles change the direction of corrections What occurred during the 1960s and 1970s to shift
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