Punishment Of Offenders Research Articles

Wringe, Bill. An Expressive Theory of Punishment.London: Macmillian, 2016. Pp. 186. $99.00 (cloth).

Wringe, Bill. <i>An Expressive Theory of Punishment</i>.London: Macmillian, 2016. Pp. 186. $99.00 (cloth).

The Broader the Power, the Narrower the Power

Many of us have been warning public service lawyers for many years that taking an absurdly broad power because you do not have the foggiest idea what you may want to do with it is actually a good way of ensuring that you will not be able to achieve your objectives because the wider the power, the more rigorously the courts will apply the presumption against the delegation of legislative power. The decision of the Supreme Court in R (on the application of the Public Law Project) v Lord Chancellor [2016] UKSC 39 provides helpful judicial authority for this proposition, particularly in relation to broad Henry VIII powers designed to allow the Executive to rewrite the primary legislative text at its own leisure and without the level of scrutiny attaching to Bills. The appeal concerned the lawfulness of a proposal by the Lord Chancellor in September 2013 to introduce a residence test for civil legal aid by amending Schedule 1 to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, by means of delegated legislation, in the form of a statutory instrument.

Press coverage as a heuristic guide for social decision-making about sexual offenders

ABSTRACTWe present two studies examining the role of the British press in promoting heuristic-based decision-making about sexual crime. In Study 1, 1014 press articles were used in order to examine the role of the availability heuristic. That is, we used the recent high-profile Jimmy Savile sexual offending scandal to investigate how this case impacted upon press reporting of sexual crime. We found a 295% increase in the frequency of sexual crime coverage after this case, in addition to a 22:1 over-representation of sexual crime prevalence. Linguistically, tabloid stories about sexual crime did not significantly differ in the 12 months following the Jimmy Savile scandal, though broadsheets were less negative in their coverage after the scandal broke. Tabloid headline descriptors of sexual offenders were also substantially more offensive than those used by broadsheets. In Study 2, tabloid readership was associated with more negative attitudes and preferences for harsher punishments for sexual offenders, which we propose may be attributable to the affect heuristic. We discuss our findings within the context of dual-process cognition, and argue that the national press promote heuristic-based thinking about the issue of sexual offending. Future research avenues, and potential implications for press engagement, are also identified.

Raising the age of criminal responsibility in the Republic of Ireland: a legacy of vested interests and political expediency

Throughout much of its history, juvenile justice in the Republic of Ireland has been oriented towards a justice as distinct from a welfare model. In the twenty-first century this was heavily amended pursuant to a justice agenda that emphasised criminalisation and punishment for offenders as young as 10 years of age. The treatment of the age of criminal responsibility has been an integral part of this trajectory. Raising the age of criminal responsibility from the common law low of 7 years in the Republic of Ireland has proved a surprisingly difficult endeavour. This article examines why the age of criminal responsibility in the Republic of Ireland was maintained at the common law age of 7 years, why there should have been such dithering over the reform when it eventually did come, and why the current law still criminalises children of a very young age. It argues that answers to these questions can be found in a volatile combination of religious values and interests, economic and social constraints, public intolerance of childhood offending, a lack of principled political leadership at the heart of the state, and the relative neglect of expert knowledge from the behavioural and neuro-sciences.

“Prison Is for Young People!” Youth, Violence, and the State in Praia and Mindelo, Cape Verde

Abstract:In the past decade Cape Verde has seen an unexpected outburst of gang-related urban violence. The state has reacted mainly by means of a repressive securitization policy, which has not been able to offer more than temporary solutions. In public discourses, “broken” families, youth drug consumption, and a supposed lack of education and sufficiently severe punishment are often referred to as the main causes for the rise in crime. The article discusses such discourses, contrasting them with the experiences and narratives of inmates from the country’s two central prisons. It suggests that extrajudicial punishment of suspects and offenders by police officers, as reported by many juvenile convicts, is part of the dynamics of violence manifest in different spheres of Cape Verdean society and may be a possible factor influencing the decision of young citizens to “opt” for, or stick to, careers of marginality and delinquency.

Legal Policies in Conflict: The Gay Panic Defense and Hate Crime Legislation

ABSTRACTGay panic refers to a situation in which a heterosexual individual loses control and commits a violent crime against a gay individual when faced with unwanted sexual advances. In court, it is argued the defendant was provoked, defending himself from possible gay rape, or even became temporarily unable to distinguish right from wrong. Despite use in many trials across the country, with varying degrees of success, the conceptualization has little merit based upon its psychological roots. Rather, the strategy appears to rely primarily upon antigay stereotypes. Counteracting gay victimization is the emergence of hate crime laws, enhancing punishments for offenders who unfairly target this group of individuals. However, the use of the gay panic defense appears to be juxtaposed to hate crimes, advocating for less severe punishments of those perpetuating crimes against gay individuals. Legal implications, possible trial strategy, and future research and legislative proposals are offered for cases involving gay panic when considering hate crime research.

Factors Related to Rape Reporting Behavior in Brazil: Examining the Role of Spatio-Temporal Factors.

The reporting of rape to police is an important component of this crime to have the criminal justice system involved and, potentially, punish offenders. However, for a number of reasons (fear of retribution, self-blame, etc.), most rapes are not reported to police. Most often, the research investigating this phenomenon considers incident and victim factors with little attention to the spatio-temporal factors of the rape. In this study, we consider incident, victim, and spatio-temporal factors relating to rape reporting in Campinas, Brazil. Our primary research question is whether or not the spatio-temporal factors play a significant role in the reporting of rape, over and above incident and victim factors. The subjects under study are women who were admitted to the Women's Integrated Healthcare Center at the State University of Campinas, Brazil, and surveyed by a psychologist or a social worker. Rape reporting to police was measured using a dichotomous variable. Logistic regression was used to predict the probability of rape reporting based on incident, victim, and spatio-temporal factors. Although we find that incident and victim factors matter for rape reporting, spatio-temporal factors (rape/home location and whether the rape was in a private or public place) play an important role in rape reporting, similar to the literature that considers these factors. This result has significant implications for sexual violence education. Only when we know why women decide not to report a rape may we begin to work on strategies to overcome these hurdles.

Sentencing recommendations are insensitive to juvenile offender’s age and maturation

AbstractResearch on perceptions of juvenile criminals has long sought to understand what drives punishment of juvenile. While some researchers argue that age influences the punishment of juvenile offenders, others argue that more severe crimes receive harsher punishments. However, in much past research, information about the juvenile and the details surrounding the crime have been manipulated, yielding inconsistent results. In this study, we manipulated age, maturity, crime severity, and offender characteristics and measured blame, sentencing recommendations, and likelihood of a guilty verdict. We expected more severe crimes would garner harsher judgments. We also expected information about the juvenile’s reasons for acting would influence judgments. Results indicate that crime severity explained the largest amount of variance in sentencing. However, age and maturity influenced judgments about blame and guilt. This study helps clarify the effects of age and maturity on punishment-related judgments by demo...

On Expressivism and Retributivism in ‘The Mighty and the Almighty’

This short comment explores Nicholas Wolterstorff's claims about expressivism and retributivism as justifications for the state's punishment of criminal offenders in his book, "The Mighty and the Almighty." It asks two questions about his account of expressivism and retributivism respectively, focusing on his interpretation of the reasons for punishment given by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans.

System penitencjarny Królestwa Polskiego w okresie międzypowstaniowym (1831–1863). Organizacja i funkcjonowanie miejsc odosobnienia oraz warunki życia osadzonych

&lt;p&gt;W latach 1831–1863 w Królestwie Polskim ścierały się dwie tendencje dotyczące karania przestępców skazanych wyrokami sądowymi. Pierwsza z nich, odwołująca się do rozwiązań z Francji, mówiła, że pobyt w więzieniu powinien być okresem resocjalizacji, pozwalającym więźniowi na powrót do normalnego życia. Druga, czerpiąca z wzorców rosyjskich, głosiła, iż więzienia są właściwie zbędne – przestępcę należy natychmiast ukarać fizycznie lub też wyeliminować ze społeczeństwa, zsyłając w odlegle rejony imperium. Chociaż administracja Królestwa Polskiego skłaniała się ku wzorcom francuskim, nigdy nie dysponowała środkami finansowymi, pozwalającymi zbudować system nowoczesnych aresztów i więzień. Skazanych przetrzymywano w nieprzystosowanych do tego celu budynkach, żywiąc ich, lecząc i transportując przy zastosowaniu skrajnych oszczędności. Nie potrafiono też zapewnić więźniom pracy ani edukacji. W konsekwencji osoby odbywające kary ulegały często deprawacji, odzyskując wolność w znacznie gorszym, niż przed wydaniem wyroku, stanie fizycznym i psychicznym.&lt;/p&gt;

Sex Offenders: Treat or Punish? (Community Quick Survey on Sex Offenders)

The aim of this study was to collect data of what ordinary people think on chemical castration and the proper punishment for sex offenders. An online survey was conducted through a questionnaire (N = 36; 19 males and 17 females). Average age was between 19 and 61; all participants have heard and known about sexual harassment. Results showed that 21% of respondents concluded that the Internet was the main cause, 36% accused the pornographic films, 18% said that the harassment was due to how the victims behave and dress themselves, and 21% said that psychopathological factors also played a role. Most of the respondents advised that the proper punishment should be death penalty (47%), while 29% chose the chemical castration and 20% chose imprisonment. Since psychoterapy (in this context cognitive-behavioral therapy) combined with pharmacological therapy has shown better outcome compared to monotherapy, the author considers to involve cognitive behavioral therapy as part of rehabilitation, so psychotherapy should be part of punishment in lieu of chemical castration. Causes underlying the sexual harassments especially the psy-chological aspects are discussed.

Criminal Justice Models: Canadian Experience in European and Islamic Comparative Perspective

This paper examines Canadian models of criminal justice in a European and Islamic comparative perspective. The traditional model of Canadian criminal justice is a state centred adversarial one intended to punish, deter and/or rehabilitate offenders who are accorded formal due process protections embedded in a liberal constitutional and procedural rights. This model has been transformed recently into an ambiguously tripartite adversarial model through an overlay of victims’ rights at all stages. However, Canadian law also recognizes alternative processes through various forms of problem solving courts and sometimes comprehensive restorative justice approaches, the latter rooted in relational notions of rights. Meanwhile, criminal models in Europe have been evolving as well. The British common law model of criminal justice has arguably been transformed by statute into a state-centred managerial approach which has shifted the balance from due process toward crime control in a somewhat continental manner, while tolerating restorative justice experimentation at its periphery. On continental Europe, traditional judge-centered investigatory/accusatorial models have been the subject of adversarial due process reforms in differing ways, while “penal mediation” has been introduced to enhance victim satisfaction beyond historically available civil party recovery procedures. In the Muslim world, there has been a revival of Shar’iah law to varying degrees in many states, centered upon Islamic jurisprudential sources based on the Qu’ran, and Sunnah or Hadith, and reasoning through qiyas (analogy) to achieve consensus (ijma) in relation to the three traditional forms of Islamic offences with their distinct procedural characteristics. The victim-centred nature of flexible aspects of Islamic criminal law has led some to characterize Shar’iah as being suffused with restorative justice principles, despite widespread views to the contrary. Examination of the differences and similarities among these various models of criminal justice from “pure” and “applied” perspectives, leads to reflection on the capacity for criminal justice systems to evolve and change, and to tolerate significant levels of internal diversity, while demonstrating a wide range of potential forms for the instantiation of plausibly common values.

Severe personality disorder, treatment engagement and the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012: what you need to know

Empirical research has demonstrated a link between legal coercion and treatment engagement following conviction among those with severe personality disorder. Legal coercive pressures were often applied by the Indeterminate Sentence for Public Protection (IPP), until it was replaced by the Extended Determinate Sentence by the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012. In this paper, it is proposed that use of the new determinate sentence will lessen motivation for treatment engagement. One effect of treatment refusal may be greater reliance by the Secretary of State for Justice on his jurisdiction to transfer prisoners due for release to secure hospital transfers under the Mental Health Act 1983. Not only will this risk posturing undermine the principal aim of the Offender Personality Disorder Implementation Pathway to improve treatment engagement among the target group, it will also have negative implications for medical practitioners working in secure forensic hospitals. To demonstrate what is at stake, the paper briefly recapitulates empirical findings familiar to readers of the journal, before drawing on original unpublished data.

Measuring Attitudes About Hate: Development of the Hate Crime Beliefs Scale.

Employing the federal Hate Crimes Prevention Act (HCPA) of 2009 and other such legislation as a backdrop, the present study evaluated the nature of beliefs about hate-crime legislation, offenders, and victims. In addition, it investigated construct validity (i.e., political beliefs and prejudice) and predictive validity (i.e., blame attribution and sentencing recommendations). A total of 403 U.S. adults completed measures of prejudice and an initial pool of 50 items forming the proposed Hate Crime Beliefs Scale (HCBS). Participants were randomly assigned to read one of four hate-crime vignettes, which varied in regard to type of prejudice (racial-, sexual orientation-, transgender-, and religion-based prejudices) and then responded to blame and sentencing questions. Factor analyses of the HCBS resulted in four sub-scales: Negative Views (i.e., higher scores reflect negative views of legislation and minority group protection), Offender Punishment (i.e., higher scores suggest endorsement of greater punishment), Deterrence (i.e., greater scores denote support for hate-crime legislation as a deterrent of more violence), and Victim Harm (i.e., higher scores reflect pro-victim attitudes). Greater pro-legislation and pro-victim beliefs were related to liberal political beliefs and less prejudicial attitudes, with some exceptions. Controlling for a number of demographic, situational, and attitudinal covariates, the Negative Views sub-scale displayed predictive utility, such that more negative views of legislation/minority group protection were associated with elevated victim blame, as well as lower perpetrator blame and sentencing recommendations. Results are discussed in the context of hate-crime research and policy, with additional implications considered for trial strategy, modern prejudice, and blame attribution theory.

Optimal Penalties for Repeat Offenders – The Role of Offence History

AbstractWithin an infinite and a corresponding finite game framework we analyse intertemporal punishment for repeat offenders. The legal authority is assumed to maximize social welfare by minimizing the sum of harm from crimes and cost of punishment. We show that the time horizon considerably affects the structure of the optimal penalty scheme. In the finite game framework decreasing as well as escalating penalty schemes may be optimal. For the more appropriate infinite game framework we show three main results: First, any penalty scheme can be replaced by a (weakly) escalating penalty scheme that leads to the same criminal activity and the same social penalization cost. Second, the optimal penalty scheme is of the escalating type. Third, the socially optimal level of crime under escalating penalties may be higher than the level which would be optimal under uniform penalties.

The Importance of Mutual Consent in Social Relationships under the Shariáh

Consent is recognized under Islamic Law as a necessary element in any social relationship (muamalat) between individuals. The importance of mutual consent between parties is regarded as predominant in various economic and non-economic activities, including business transactions, marriage contracts, punishment of criminal offenders and even for those seeking medical treatment. Thus, the requirement for mutual consent is indispensable in any transaction, without which the contract will be declared as null and void and ultimately, carries no legal effect. This is based on Quranic verse which states: “O you who have believed, do not consume one another's wealth unjustly but only [in lawful] business by mutual consent” (4:29). The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) has also been reported to have said: “Sale is but based on mutual consent”. These evidences clearly depict that all transactions must be based on free willingness of parties involved and the principles governing consent under the Shariah has three basic elements, that is, (i) Intention (Niyyah); (ii) Will (Irādah); and (iii) Choice (Ikhtiyār). Particularly, for those seeking medical treatment, consent is regarded as an indispensable element which must be obtained prior to executing the medical treatment. A doctor is under a duty to obtain consent from his patient beginning from the stage of informing the material risks to the patient until the completion of the medical treatment. Once consent has been obtained in accordance with the demands of the Shari’ah, then only the medical treatment will be considered to have been legally performed.

The Prison Boom and Sentencing Policy

AbstractThe existing literature on the role of changes in sentencing policies as drivers of growth in prison populations contains findings that appear contradictory. We present a new method for characterizing changes in the severity of expected punishments for offenders and build a new simulation model based on this method. We provide clear evidence that changes in sentencing policy drove recent growth in prison populations in the United States, and our approach sheds light on the reasons that some previous studies did not reach this conclusion. The shift to more punitive sentencing policies had a disproportionate effect on black communities, even though, for the most part, this shift did not target blacks or crimes that blacks commit relatively more than whites.

O CASO TINGA: ANALISANDO (MAIS) UM EPISÓDIO DE RACISMO NO FUTEBOL SUL-AMERICANO

O objetivo deste estudo consiste em analisar os discursos referentes ao caso de racismo ocorrido na partida de futebol entre a Asociación Civil Real Atlético Garcilaso (Peru) e Cruzeiro Esporte Clube (Brasil), o qual vitimou Paulo Cesar Tinga, atleta do clube brasileiro. Para tanto foi necessário um levantamento de fontes, encontradas em sites de periódicos esportivos disponíveis na internet, cujas análises foram pautadas nos preceitos teóricos da Análise do Discurso. Notou-se a partir do cruzamento de tais discursos que as penas aplicadas aos infratores são demasiadas brandas, possibilitando que este tipo de conduta seja recorrente no campo futebolístico.

Nusikalstamo elgesio rizikos vertinimas Lietuvoje: esama situacija ir raidos tendencijos

This paper examines the process of risk assessment of criminal behaviour in Lithuania. It addresses the presentation of risk assessment concepts, international and national trends in risk assessment procedures, and analysis of common characteristics of risk assessment instruments adapted in Lithuania. The paper comprises, first, a presentation of positive and statutory innovations related to risk assessment instruments approbation in Lithuania. The authors admit that the Lithuanian correctional system is following new trends of risk assessment. Contemporary and worldwide known risk instruments such as OASys, HCR-20, SVR-20, SARA, B-SAFER, PCL: SV were approved in Lithuania and put into practice. The use of these instruments enables practitioners to provide the scientific, evidence-based risk assessment that is necessary for effective offender punishment and risk management planning. It should be noted, that great attention is provided to risk assessment data reliability and validity to scientific research, thus assuring the qualification of assessors in Lithuania. Secondly, the paper describes difficulties encountered by specialists implementing penal and supervisory reforms. Mostly the discussion is concentrated on the problems related to the application of risk assessment instruments and the interpretation of assessment results in decision-making process related to the offender punishment peculiarities. Though the Lithuanian Justice system is implementing risk assessment as an obligatory procedure, however, recently it is mostly concentrated on the general risk assessment; the specified risk (e.g., sexual, violent) assessment is applied more rarely. In result, the specified risk assessment is not emphasised in the social research conclusions of parole. Accordingly, the parole commission and court representatives have no possibility to consider this type of information in making their decisions. The attention should also be directed to the practitioners’ work overload problems. The increasing number of criminals is related to the increasing demand of risk assessment procedures and risk management planning. However, the number of specialists working in this area and offenders that should be assessed is disproportionate. It leads to the constant work overload and turnover of qualified staff. Lastly, the paper presents recommendations for practitioners on how risk assessment and management practices and processes could be understood, and gives directions for a more proficient risk application of risk assessment instruments. It is obvious that cooperation between scientists and practitioners would lead to a more effective application of assessment instruments.

Excluding evidence (or staying proceedings) to vindicate rights in Irish and English law

The constitutional duty of the Irish state ‘to defend and vindicate the personal rights of the citizen’ is the basis of a strict rule excluding unconstitutionally obtained evidence. Although English courts recognise a similar duty to ‘vindicate human rights and the rule of law’, their powers to exclude evidence or stay proceedings for abuse of process are extremely flexible and discretionary. In both jurisdictions, there has been particular controversy over the application of these powers to covert recordings that breach legal professional privilege. This paper argues that the duty to vindicate rights and the rule of law underpins both the exclusion of unlawfully obtained evidence and the punishment of offenders. It requires a balancing exercise, not between defendants' rights and an incommensurable public interest but, rather, between two aspects of the same constitutional duty of the courts.