What is a financial penalty
fines, usually given for less serious offences, failure to pay may face prison
What are the aims of financial penaties
- retribution
- deterrence
How does financial penalties meet aim of retribution
taking money off somebody who took money off somebody else shows the offender getting their ‘just desserts’
How does financial penalties meet aim of deterrence
a fine could make an offender reluctant to re-offend and is common way of punishing first time offenders so fines can be used as signal that worse punishments follow if re-offend
What are the different types of imprisonment
- life sentences
- determinate sentences
- suspended sentences
What is a determinate sentence
fixed length, usually not serve whole sentence in prison, some served out on license
What is a life sentence
most serious form of punishment, on license for rest of life, usually found guilty of murder
What is a suspended sentence
offender given prison sentence but not directly go to prison, court propose requirements, if commit crime in period will serve original sentence
What aims does imprisonment serve
- retribution- takes away freedom and bad living conditions
- public protection- cant harm society
- reparation-prisoners permitted to work outside of prison can be made to pay some of earnings to victim support services
Why does imprisonment not serve aim of deterrence
- high re-offending rates
- half of all adult prisoners reconvicted within year of being released
Why does imprisonment not serve aim of rehabilitation
- 48% of prisoners re-offend within year of release
- only 1/4 of prisoners have a job to go to when released
- 6789 prisoners recalled to prison after breaching conditions of probation in 2019
What is a community sentence
- sentence that is served in the community
e.g. supervised by probation officer, 40-300 hours unpaid work, curfew, residency order
What aims does community sentences meet
- retribution- all community sentences include element of punishment, offender suffer limits on freedom
- reparation- do unpaid work to repair damage caused to victims property
- rehabilitation- underlying causes of crime are addressed as training and treatments, only 34% re-offend within 12 months of starting com sen
Why does community sentence not meet aim of public protection
the offender is not locked up so can still commit crime
What are the 2 types of discharge
- conditional- offender not be punished unless commit another offence within set period of time
- unconditional- no penalty imposed, offender found guilty but punishment would be inappropriate
What is a discharge and why are people given it
when court finds someone guilty of a minor offence but decides not to hand down a criminal conviction
How does a discharge meet aim of deterrence
- lowest level of punishment and acts as a warning to individuals future conduct
- low rate of re-offending following discharge, especially if first time offence
- first time offender can find going to court enough to mend their ways
