The Criminal Justice System and Punishment
This topic examines how society responds to crime through the police, courts and prisons, and evaluates different approaches to punishment.
The Criminal Justice System (CJS)
The CJS is the network of agencies responsible for detecting, prosecuting and punishing crime:
| Agency | Role |
|---|
| Police | Detect and investigate crime; arrest suspects; maintain public order; crime prevention |
| Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) | Decides whether to prosecute; presents cases in court |
| Courts | Magistrates' courts (minor offences) and Crown courts (serious offences); determine guilt and sentence |
| Probation service | Supervises offenders in the community; prepares pre-sentence reports |
| Prisons | Hold those sentenced to custody; aim to punish, deter and rehabilitate |
| Youth Offending Teams | Work with young offenders (10-17) to prevent reoffending |
Perspectives on the CJS
Functionalism
- The CJS maintains social order by punishing those who break shared norms
- Durkheim — public punishment reinforces collective values and creates social solidarity
- The CJS is fair and necessary — it protects society from harm
Marxism
- The CJS serves ruling-class interests — it criminalises the poor while ignoring crimes of the powerful
- Chambliss (1976) — the law protects property (bourgeois interests); police target working-class areas
- Reiman (2007) — "The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison": the CJS disproportionately punishes the working class
- Corporate criminals receive fines; street criminals receive prison
Feminism
- The CJS reflects and reinforces patriarchy
- Women victims of domestic violence and sexual assault are often poorly served — low conviction rates for rape (around 1-2% of reported rapes end in conviction)
- The chivalry thesis — women offenders may be treated more leniently; BUT Heidensohn — "doubly deviant" women may be treated more harshly
Interactionism
- The CJS creates crime through labelling and selective enforcement
- Police discretion means some groups are targeted more than others
- Once labelled "criminal", the self-fulfilling prophecy and deviant career follow
Policing
The Role of the Police
- Crime detection and investigation
- Patrol and crime prevention
- Maintaining public order (protests, football matches)
- Community policing — building trust and intelligence in local areas
- Counter-terrorism
Issues with Policing
- Stop and search — Black people are roughly 6 times more likely to be stopped; this reflects racial profiling according to critics, or higher crime in certain areas according to the police
- Institutional racism — the Macpherson Report (1999) concluded the Metropolitan Police was institutionally racist following failures in the Stephen Lawrence murder investigation
- Police discretion — officers decide who to stop, arrest and charge, introducing potential bias by class, ethnicity and gender
- Under-policing of some crimes — domestic violence, corporate crime and online fraud receive less attention than street crime
- Use of force — concerns about disproportionate use of Tasers and restraint against Black and mentally ill individuals
Community Policing vs Zero Tolerance
| Approach | Features | Evaluation |
|---|
| Community policing | Officers build relationships with local communities; neighbourhood teams; emphasis on prevention and trust | Can reduce fear of crime and improve intelligence; but slow, resource-intensive and difficult to measure |
| Zero tolerance | Strict enforcement of all laws, including minor offences; based on Wilson and Kelling's (1982) "Broken Windows" theory — small signs of disorder lead to more serious crime if unchecked | Claimed success in New York (crime fell in the 1990s); but crime also fell in cities without it; risks alienating communities; can lead to racial profiling; displaces crime rather than reducing it |
Punishment — Aims and Types
Aims of Punishment
| Aim | Explanation | Perspective |
|---|
| Deterrence | Punishing offenders discourages others from committing crime (general deterrence) and the offender from reoffending (individual deterrence) | Functionalist / Right Realist |
| Incapacitation | Removing offenders from society (prison) prevents them from committing further crimes while incarcerated | Functionalist / Right Realist |
| Retribution | Punishment should be proportionate to the crime — "an eye for an eye"; the offender deserves to suffer for what they did | Durkheim — collective conscience demands punishment |
| Rehabilitation | Punishment should reform offenders and address the causes of their behaviour (education, therapy, skills training) | Left Realist / Interactionist |
| Reparation | Offenders make amends to victims or the community (restorative justice, community service) | Reintegrative approach |
Types of Punishment
| Type | Examples | Strengths | Weaknesses |
|---|
| Custodial (prison) | Imprisonment | Incapacitates; public feels safe; punitive | Expensive (£45,000+ per prisoner per year); high reoffending (around 48% within one year); "universities of crime" — prisoners learn from each other; damages families |
| Community | Community service, curfews, electronic tags | Cheaper; offender maintains family/work ties; rehabilitation focus | Seen as a "soft option" by the public; compliance is hard to enforce |
| Financial | Fines, compensation orders | Quick, cheap, proportionate | Unfair — a £500 fine means different things to a millionaire and someone on benefits |
| Restorative justice | Victim-offender mediation; the offender faces the victim, acknowledges harm and agrees to make amends | High victim satisfaction; can reduce reoffending; addresses emotional harm | Not suitable for serious/violent crimes; victim may feel pressured; relies on offender sincerity |
Prison — Does It Work?
Arguments That Prison Works
- Right Realists and politicians often argue prison deters and incapacitates
- The public strongly supports imprisonment for serious offenders
- Murray (1990) — criminals make rational choices; prison raises the cost of crime
- Some dangerous individuals must be removed from society
Arguments That Prison Does Not Work
- Reoffending rates — around 48% of adult prisoners and 64% of juvenile offenders reoffend within a year of release
- Overcrowding — UK prisons are chronically overcrowded, undermining rehabilitation programmes
- Mental health — a high proportion of prisoners have mental health conditions, learning difficulties and histories of abuse that prison does not address
- "University of crime" — prisoners learn criminal skills and make criminal contacts
- Social damage — imprisonment breaks up families, causes children to suffer and makes reintegration into society harder
- Disproportionate impact — working-class, Black and mentally ill people are over-represented in prison, suggesting systemic bias rather than genuine proportionality
- Cost — over £45,000 per prisoner per year, far more than alternatives like community sentences or drug treatment programmes
Foucault (1977) — Discipline and Punish
Michel Foucault traced the shift from public punishment (execution, flogging) to surveillance and control (prison, probation, CCTV). He argued that modern society controls people not through violence but through constant monitoring — the "panopticon" principle where people behave because they think they might be being watched. This extends beyond prison to schools, workplaces and public spaces.
Crime Prevention Strategies
| Strategy | Detail |
|---|
| Situational crime prevention | Designing out crime through environmental changes — CCTV, improved lighting, security locks, target hardening. Based on the idea that crime is opportunistic. Effective for some crimes but displaces crime elsewhere. |
| Environmental design (CPTED) | Designing buildings and spaces to reduce crime — natural surveillance, defensible space, access control. Newman (1972) — "Defensible Space" |
| Social crime prevention | Addressing the root causes of crime — poverty, inequality, poor education, family breakdown. Includes youth programmes, education initiatives, community development. Favoured by Left Realists. |
Exam Technique
For questions on punishment, use the framework of aims (deterrence, rehabilitation, retribution, incapacitation, reparation) and evaluate each with evidence. Always link to perspectives — functionalists favour punishment that reinforces values; Marxists see the CJS as class-biased; interactionists focus on labelling effects of conviction. Include recent data on reoffending rates and prison costs.