According to a functionalist perspective, crime has always existed and plays a key role in society (Mooney, Knox, and Schact, 2007). Due to this, society has always been looking at ways to punish criminals and deter crime. It was not until the 1700’s that the prison system emerged as a new form to not only punish criminals for their actions but also to protect society from violent offenders. While it is easy to say that prisons are effective because they remove the offender from society there are also an overwhelming number of negative factors for the offender and society. There has been a plethora of research conducted by social scientists over the years that reinforces the notion that criminal activity is a common occurrence among the youth …show more content…
This separation could have a negative influence on the young offender because they are not learning about societal norms, they are not receiving an education with other youth their age who are not offenders, and upon release they may be unsuitable for any employment due to their lack of education as well as their criminal record. Griffiths (2014) states that there is a strong correlation between delinquency and school failure. Having this knowledge, we can conclude that if, after release, the youth is unable to become successful in school they will be more likely to return to delinquency. According to Aizer (2013), custody interrupts the time the youth would be spending in their regular school which could lead to an increased chance that the youth would choose to drop out of school after release. Moreover, Zach Beauchamp (2013) reiterates the ideas presented by Aizer, making the claim that in a study of youth who went to prison and those who did not, those who spent time in prison were less likely to graduate high school and also more likely to commit crimes in adulthood. Social bond theory does an excellent job at describing the positive influence of school and having commitments to the community. This theory stipulates that those who lack social bonds (such as school, family ties, religious beliefs, extracurricular or …show more content…
A theory that has been developed to understand this is known as the professionalization of crime. This theory stipulates that criminals upon release from prison have a more advances skill set that enables them to become better criminals, thus defeating the reformation goal of prisons (Neminski, 2013). Therefore, prisons are not successful if they allow criminals to be released from prison, only to return. This results in overcrowding and increased costs on tax-payers. Whether one goes to prison or not is a major determinant of whether they will later move on to become a professionalized criminal because, especially youth who are given adult sentences, they are surrounding by inmates with more experience who generally share their criminal techniques (Neminski, 2013) The juvenile can become socialized in a negative way that may lead to a return to a criminal lifestyle and to be more successful as criminals when they are released (Neminski, 2013). Moreover, Neminski states that offenders who return to prison on average were
Throughout his novel, Texas Tough: The Rise of America’s Prison Empire, author and professor Robert Perkinson outlines the three current dominant purposes of prison. The first, punishment, is the act of disciplining offenders in an effort to prevent them from recommitting a particular crime. Harsh punishment encourages prisoners to behave because many will not want to face the consequences of further incarceration. While the purpose of punishment is often denounced, many do agree that prison should continue to be used as a means of protecting law-abiding citizens from violent offenders. The isolation of inmates, prison’s second purpose, exists to protect the public. Rehabilitation is currently the third purpose of prison. Rehabilitation is considered successful when a prisoner does n...
ically based control policy (punish and deter individuals) address the issues that surround the social construction of crime and deviance? References and Related Readings Bureau of Justice Statistics-1989, UNCRIM Gopher, SUNY-Albany, 1994. Marcus Felson, Crime and Everyday Life: Insight and Implications for Society, Pine Forge Press, 1994. Allen Liska, Perspectives on Deviance, 2nd ed., Prentice-Hall, 1987. Steven Messner and Richard Rosenfeld, Crime and the American Dream, Wadsworth, 1994.
The inappropriate or unnecessary use of incarceration is “expensive, ineffective, and inhumane,” and initiates a “cycle of juvenile reoffending” (Bala et. al, 2009). A study conducted by Mann (2014) exemplifies this cycle of youth reoffending. The youth interviewed demonstrated that despite a stay in sentenced custody, the threat of future punishment was not enough to deter from future offences. Cook and Roesch (2012) demonstrate that youth have developmental limitations that can impair their involvement in the justice system; for example, not understanding their sentencing options properly or their competence to stand trial. Therefore, deterrence as a justification for youth incarceration is ineffective, as incarceration proves to be not a strong enough deterrent. Alternative methods such as extrajudicial measures and community-based sanctions were considered more effective (Cook & Roesch,
“Although nearly 90% of children remain with their mothers when fathers go to prison, grandparents usually care for children when mothers are incarcerated” (Johnson & Waldfogel, 2002; Snell, 1994 as cited in; Poehlmann). This shows that the family structure is more drastically upset when the mother is imprisoned versus the father. This also shows that just losing one parent while staying in the same environment is easier to self-adjust back into equilibrium than it is to fully change and integrate into another household. While the mother is in prison, the child is now in the care of someone else and where that child is, is crucial to their development. This explains that a disrupt in family structure can impact a child’s skills that are necessary to a positive development, such as reading and math skills and the ability to focus in class to learn. Emily Durkheim’s structural functionalism theory can be used to further explain this topic. A child’s family is an organism, no matter that typicality of it’s makeup. Every person has a role in the structure and when a mother is incarcerated that disrupts the system and the children are moved into a new structure, the process towards equilibrium can be tough and in some cases detrimental to their development as they are exposed to more intellectual
Several studies conducted to determine impacts of transfers of cases from juvenile courts to adult criminal courts for trial and potential sentencing indicate higher recidivism rates among the offenders. This is because of the notion the youth possess on the strictness on the adult courts. They believe trials on these courts end up in harsh punishment for offenders. In a way, adult punishments scare youth away from committing major crimes. However, studies show that short term punishments imposed on young offenders in adult courts propagates the offenders to commit even more crimes that are serious after their sentence terminates. This results from interactions with other crimes bearer behind bars who are convicted for far much worse crimes than they are. In addition the young offenders continued to commit crimes at a higher rate and more often than earlier on (Shari, page 1).
There are several fundamental problems within America’s penal system. First, the name “penal” system indicates that the main focus is punishment. Punishment is meant to “teach them a lesson,” i.e. deter the convicts from future crime. Reasonable or unreasonable, punishment often results in the punished resenting and holding negative feelings for the punisher. If society is the punisher, inmates will not be motivated to go back into the general populace as a valued and productive member of society. Furthermore, prison has been commonly known to be both a training ground for more sophisticated crime as well as psychologically hardening nonviolent or innocent inmates that were falsely accused.
The goals of juvenile corrections are too deter, rehabilitate and reintegrate, prevent, punish and reattribute, as well as isolate and control youth offenders and offenses. Each different goal comes with its own challenges. The goal of deterrence has its limits; because rules and former sanctions, as well anti-criminal modeling and reinforcement are met with young rebellious minds. Traditional counseling and diversion which are integral aspects of community corrections can sometimes be ineffective, and studies have shown that sometimes a natural self intervention can take place as the youth grows older; resulting in the youth outgrowing delinquency.
As the current prison structures and sentencing process continues to neglect the issues that current offenders have no change will accrue to prevent recidivism. The issue with the current structure of the prison sentencing process is it does not deal with the “why” the individual is an social deviant but only looks at the punishment process to remove the deviant from society. This method does not allow an offender to return back to society without continuing where they left off. As an offender is punished they are sentenced (removal from society) they continue in an isolated environment (prison) after their punishment time is completed and are released back to society they are now an outsider to the rapidly changing social environment. These individuals are returned to society without any coping skills, job training, or transitional training which will prevent them from continuing down th...
The challenges of children who grow up with parents whom were incarcerated at some point in their childhood can have a major effect on their life. The incarceration of parents can at times begin to affect the child even at birth. Now with prison nurseries the impregnated mother can keep her baby during her time in jail. With the loss of their parent the child can begin to develop behavioral problems with being obedient, temper tantrums, and the loss of simple social skills. Never learning to live in a society they are deprived of a normal social life. “The enormous increase incarceration led to a parallel, but far less documented, increase in the proportion of children who grew up with a parent incarcerated during their childhood” (Johnson 2007). This means the consequences of the children of the incarcerated parents receive no attention from the media, or academic research. The academic research done in this paper is to strengthen the research already worked by many other people. The impact of the parent’s incarceration on these children can at times be both positive and negative. The incarceration of a parent can be the upshot to the change of child’s everyday life, behavioral problems, and depriving them a normal social life.
For my own experience in understanding crime, when I was a kid I use to help out at the Boys and Girls Club in Boston; I also recently just volunteered my time at the Flagstaff Boys and Girls Club. To tie this into crime in a society I looked at the surrounding environment. In Boston I noticed a complete contrast with the environment compared to the Boys and Girls Club in Flagstaff. For the kids in Boston, in the inner city these kids had more family complications, some had no parents, mot were troubled youth. The surrounding settings where these kids lived was crowded by run down buildings; not a child-friendly environment. To look at the functionalist theoretical perspective we can look at broken windows theory and Life Course Theory.
A large burden is placed on families when youth are incarcerated. There is not only the pain of being separated, but it also prevents families from being involved in the juvenile’s life, which is a barrier to the child’s recovery, future, and
Coyle (2005). The 'Standard'. To say whether using prison as a form of punishment has aid in the quest of tackling the crime problem, one must first consider the purposes of the prison.... ... middle of paper ... ...
This paper explores the benefits provided by educational programs in jails and prisons. Included are the reasons inmates need education in order to successfully reenter society once they are released and use the knowledge and skills they have learned to obtain a job in order to support themselves and their families. Also examined in the paper are the financial benefits of incorporating educational programs instead of cutting them, as well as the effect these programs play on the recidivism rate. Lastly is a focus on understanding the importance of education and job training, even though the recipients are criminals.
Punishing the unlawful, undesirable and deviant members of society is an aspect of criminal justice that has experienced a variety of transformations throughout history. Although the concept of retribution has remained a constant (the idea that the law breaker must somehow pay his/her debt to society), the methods used to enforce and achieve that retribution has changed a great deal. The growth and development of society, along with an underlying, perpetual fear of crime, are heavily linked to the use of vastly different forms of punishment that have ranged from public executions, forced labor, penal welfare and popular punitivism over the course of only a few hundred years. Crime constructs us as a society whilst society, simultaneously determines what is criminal. Since society is always changing, how we see crime and criminal behavior is changing, thus the way in which we punish those criminal behaviors changes.
The forgotten few: the juvenile offender population. Seldom thought about, but yet are the foundation and underpinning of the origin of the crime in the United States. This is an inquiry as to what has been done to the adolescents and children with regards to sanctions that have not yet been really brought to light. The problematic history of juvenile offenders is one of the United States dirty little secret. The literature shows the nations children who deviate from the norm are presumed to be deviant and treated like its adult criminal population. Teenagers, kids, adolescents are presumed to be treated as if they are of age. What is lost is the cognitive development and nourishment when such negative actions occur. The basic and fundamental formative academics that have shown effectiveness are not being implemented into the sanctions for these juvenile offenders. There is a linear correlation between low education obtainment levels, mental illness and juvenile offending and recidivism. This is a significant dynamic risk factor that has the potential to eliminate the deviance of the youth in the nation. The development of our youth mentally can indeed have lasting positive effects for sustaining positive results during their rehabilitation stints and most importantly decreasing recidivism.