Crimes and Punishments Free Essay Example, 1500 words

Including those incarcerated in jails, over 1.5 million people were in prison at the end of 1995† (Gilliard & Beck, 1996). The sentencing reforms that began in the 1980s had a simple purpose, to contain and diminish criminal activity by extending prison sentences which served to not only remove offenders from the community for a longer period of time but to deter others as well. The theory behind this is that the threat of long prison stays causes those contemplating crime to rethink their actions. Methods such as the ‘three strike rule’ cuts crime by removing the so-called ‘career criminals’ from the communities. â€Å"Crime control benefits of imprisonment can occur by increasing the certainty of punishment, increasing the severity of punishment, or both† (Cohen & Canela-Cacho, 1994). Locking the door and throwing away the key assures that a segment of the population does not have the opportunity to commit offense, thus an automatic reduction of crime. According to this theory, the cost of incarcerating a greater percentage of the population is regained by the reductio n of costs involved in lessened criminal activity. We will write a custom essay sample on Crimes and Punishments or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now These types of criminal management techniques â€Å"interact in complex ways, and empirical research has not satisfactorily separated them† (Blumstein et al, 1978). As an example, calculations involving prevention and the threat of long prison sentences in relation to the reduction in crime take into consideration deterrent and incarceration effects. However, calculations regarding the effects of incarceration don’t measure many of the other factors that may also serve to diminish criminal activity. In addition to these aspects are many societal, monetary, and location aspects regarding the individual that must be considered, for instance â€Å"age distribution, unemployment rates, wages, welfare rates, etc. (which) are directly and indirectly associated with changes in crime rates† (Austin & Cohen, 1996). Unscrambling what roles these issues and to what degree they alter the crime rate presents complex procedural issues and leaves accurate determinations to bro ad conjecture. A strong argument for increased prison sentences during the ‘tough on crime’ trend that began in the 1980’s and continues today is the positive consequences of deterrence. However, the significant increase in the prison population since this time has not correlated with a similar reduction of criminal violence. â€Å"The tripling in the number of violent offenders in prison during the 1980’s resulted in only an estimated additional nine percent decrease in violent crimes above the decrease that would have occurred had imprisonment not grown† (Cohen & Canela-Cacho, 1994).