Deterrence And The Incapacitation Theory Of Punishment

As alcohol –related violence have been increasing in Australian jurisdiction, the Queensland government has attempted to take the innovativeness to reduce the rate of these violent related incidents. Research indicates that the majority of people that have been physically or sexually assaulted by another person, said that the perpetrator had been drinking or taking drugs while 28% have experienced it themselves (Miller et al., 2016). Legislations provided police, courts and venues with powers to stop people from entering or remaining in a particular location and premises. In 2010 the government introduced changes to the legislations in response to recommendations from a parliamentary examination into alcohol related violence. These amendments

It is defined as the use of punishment as a threat which is considered as a means to prevent people from reoffending or to reduce the probability or level of offending (Lee, 2017). The concept of this theory has two main assumptions, these include specific punishments imposed on offenders possibly will prevent the offender from committing future crimes and that fear of punishment could others from committing similar crimes (Lee, 2017).

Incapacitation theory of punishment is a theory which argues offenders must be removed from society in order to prevent them from committing further crime. The philosophy of this theory depend on the ability of the community to identify offenders that might re-offender. The physical removal of offenders from the community is the primary method of this theory in majority of modern punishment systems. This usually means for offenders to be sentenced to imprisonment however other methods of incapacitation are used depending on the crime. (Malsch, Leeuw and Scheepmaker, 2016)

Slide 4 – Deterrence and how it relates to banning

The government introduced these banning order laws to reduce alcohol-related violence, both socially and economically. Thus, banning orders are used as a way to deter crime as it acts as a method to discourage criminal behaviour by punishing offenders who commit a violence act. This theory has two aspects, specific deterrence and general deterrence. Specific deterrence refers to the use punishment to discourage an individual criminal from future acts by implanting an understanding of the consequences (Lee, 2017). Police banning notices are given out by the police to people behaving violently or inappropriately in or outside premises. If patrons happen to breach the order then there are future consequences which apply. (For example, extending the duration of the initial ban to a total period of up to 3 months). Additionally, banning orders can also be given through court which can attract a term of up to 12 months of ban. Penalties for breaching a court banning order include up to one year’s imprisonment or a fine of $4,400. These are all consequences that come with banning orders as they try to implant an understanding to every offender and non-offender. General deterrence mainly focus on the general prevention of crime by making examples of specific deviants (Australian Institute of Criminology, 2004). With banning orders