When breaking down the question, is prison an effective way to reduce crime, there are three components that must first be examined. The four components are prison, effective and crime. When dealing with prisons, one must first say what the difference between prisons and jail is. According to the Cambridge Dictionary a prison is “a building where criminals are forced to live as a punishment” (Cambridge Dictionary). Jail on the other hand, is “a place where criminals are kept to punish them for their crimes, or where people accused of crimes are kept while waiting for their trials” (Cambridge Dictionary). So basically, prisons are for people who have committed a crime and are for long sentences. And jail deals with people who are awaiting trial
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However, only 3.7 million of these were reported to the police (Herring, 2014: 8). That is just under 40%, 40% of the committed crimes were reported. This might be because of dark figure, unreported crimes, because the victim does not come forward as they might be scared or not know if it is a crime or not. But, again, not all these crimes will have imprisonment as an outcome. The punishment for certain crimes can vary depending on the country. Laws in general are different in different countries. For example, in Portugal it is against the law to pee in the ocean, in Samoa it is illegal to forget your wife’s birthday and in Singapore it is illegal to chew gum unless prescribed by a doctor (Pegg, 2014). Not only are laws different but prisons and sentences also vary from country to country. However, prisons all operate in the same manner, to sentence criminals and to hopefully prevent future damage to the society.
Moreover, punishment and the prison system have changed over time. In ancient times, prisons were not used as punishment but more a place to hold criminals before they would receive their punishment. Some punishments would include beheading, hanging, stoning, and shaming. But now it is a place to punish, rehabilitate and deter criminals where the aim is to make offenders into law obeying citizens (Encyclopedia …show more content…
For example, by giving the offenders community sentences instead, it reduces reoffending rates by 6%. This can be seen in the 2010 rates, reoffending rates decreased in the short term from 62% down to 56% (Leach, 2014). By simply not sending them to prison reduces reoffending by 9%. Something that really affected the reoffending rates was making the prisoners meet their victims; it decreased to 14%. In contrast, having no family visits increases reoffending rates by 39% (Leach, 2014). This shows that by changing certain factors it can have an affect on the possibility of
However, only 3.7 million of these were reported to the police (Herring, 2014: 8). That is just under 40%, 40% of the committed crimes were reported. This might be because of dark figure, unreported crimes, because the victim does not come forward as they might be scared or not know if it is a crime or not. But, again, not all these crimes will have imprisonment as an outcome. The punishment for certain crimes can vary depending on the country. Laws in general are different in different countries. For example, in Portugal it is against the law to pee in the ocean, in Samoa it is illegal to forget your wife’s birthday and in Singapore it is illegal to chew gum unless prescribed by a doctor (Pegg, 2014). Not only are laws different but prisons and sentences also vary from country to country. However, prisons all operate in the same manner, to sentence criminals and to hopefully prevent future damage to the society.
Moreover, punishment and the prison system have changed over time. In ancient times, prisons were not used as punishment but more a place to hold criminals before they would receive their punishment. Some punishments would include beheading, hanging, stoning, and shaming. But now it is a place to punish, rehabilitate and deter criminals where the aim is to make offenders into law obeying citizens (Encyclopedia …show more content…
For example, by giving the offenders community sentences instead, it reduces reoffending rates by 6%. This can be seen in the 2010 rates, reoffending rates decreased in the short term from 62% down to 56% (Leach, 2014). By simply not sending them to prison reduces reoffending by 9%. Something that really affected the reoffending rates was making the prisoners meet their victims; it decreased to 14%. In contrast, having no family visits increases reoffending rates by 39% (Leach, 2014). This shows that by changing certain factors it can have an affect on the possibility of