Deterrence and Recidivism
Crime prevention is a key aim of the criminal justice system. Offenders are incarcerated in prisons in a expectation that they will feel punished enough to learn from their mistakes and not commit further crimes, this is called deterrence and is a main goal of prisons today (Daly, 2003). Prisons in their current form are often overcrowded, anxiety inducing, restrictive and have been found to exacerbate the mental health of offenders (Matthews, 2016). In saying this, research by Crank and Brezina (2012) suggests that some offenders find prison ‘easier than being on the street’. Crank and Brezina (2012) conducted a study where they surveyed a large group of inmates and questioned them on their views of being incarcerated. Many
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Rich et al (2014) discusses how prison provides a “stable environment with regular meals; reduced access to drugs and alcohol and increased access to health care”, many privileges not necessarily attainable by offenders outside of prison. For offenders who are struggling to reach the goals society places on them, prison can be considered an almost pleasant experience. If we consider a homeless person who was in prison for theft it can be understood that having shelter, regular food and medical care would be an improvement compared to their life out of prison. Mitchell, Cochran, Mears and Bales (2016) support the idea that prisons are not effective at deterring offenders. They claim that the prison environment does the opposite in some cases and encourages offenders to commit crime, this is because labelling someone as a ‘criminal’ makes them more inclined to be a criminal. When incapacitated offenders are also associating with like-minded individuals. They are exposed to more criminogenic factors and their offending peers could easily influence their attitudes towards crime (Cullen, Jonson & Nagin, 2011). For first time offenders this can mean they are influenced to further commit