Effectiveness of Punishment and Prisons

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Effectiveness of Punishment and Prisons

Studies of the effectiveness of punishments often use reconviction

rates as a measurement of success or failure. According to fairly

recent reports there are currently no real differences between

reconviction rates for custodial and all community penalties (Home

Affairs Committee, 1998, Home Office, 1998). However, there are many

problems associated with the reliability of such data, and much

caution is needed when using such measurements as a criteria for

assessing the effectiveness of punishment. For instance, there is

much disagreement about what reconviction should be counted. For

community penalties the counting began on the date of sentence whereas

for custodial sentences the counting begins on the date of release

(May, 1994). therefore, does not take

into account any offence committed whilst in prison. On the

other hand, there is no way of knowing how far re-offending whilst

serving a community sentence is due to the ineffectiveness of the

punishment or an individuals social circumstance. The 1998 report by

the Home Affairs Committee draws attention to even more concerns

regarding reconviction rates. It is stated that:

“Reconviction rates take any subsequent reconviction as an indication

of failure and do not take into account changes in offence severity or

a reduction in the frequency of offending; Reconviction rates

under-estimate the true level of re-offending since for many types of

offence the clear up rate is very low; Police Forces have varying

clear up rates which reflect differences in the changes of being

arrested and re-convict...

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HMSO.

Home Office (1998) Prison Statistics England and Wales 1998, London:

HMSO.

Hood, R. G and Sparks, R.F. (1970) Keys issues in criminology, London:

Weidenfeld and Nicolson.

Hood, R (1992) Race and Sentencing: A study in the Crown Court, Oxford:

Clarendon Press.

May, T. (1994) ‘Probation and Community Sanctions’, in Maguire. et al

(eds) The Oxford Handbook Of Criminology, 1st ed. Oxford: Clarendon

Press.

McLaughlin, E and Muncie, J. (1996) Controlling Crime, London: Sage.

Vass, A. (1990) Alternatives to Prison, Custody and the Community,

London: Sage.

Wilson, D and Ashton, J. (1998) What every one in Britain should know

about Crime and Punishment, London: Blackstone Press.

Worall, A (1997) Punishment in the Community: The future of Criminal

Justice, Harlow: Addison Wesley Longman.

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