Public Protection - AC2.2 (Aims of Punishment)

Question 1

What does public protection mean?

Answer 1

Public protection links to incapacitation which is where punishments are used to protect the public by removing an offender’s physical capacity to offend

Question 2

How does curfew and tagging meet the aims of public protection?

Answer 2

Prevents further offending by restricting movement and limits how far a crime could be committed

Question 3

How do foreign travel bans meet the aims of public protection?

Answer 3

Prevent offenders (like football hooligans) from attending matches abroad and committing anti-social behavior internationally

Question 4

How does chemical castration meet the aims of public protection?

Answer 4

Prevents sex offenders from being able to re-offend by preventing the urge to commit a crime

Question 5

How does execution meet the aims of public protection?

Answer 5

Prevents an offender from ever committing a crime again and is kept for the most serious crimes

Question 6

What is the main form of incapacitation?

Answer 6

Imprisonment

Question 7

How has incapacitation influenced sentencing laws?

Answer 7

Crime (sentences) Act in 1997
- Mandatory minimum jail sentences for repeat offenders and automatic life sentences for second serious sexual or violent offenses
- 7 years minimum for 3rd Class A drug trafficking offenses
- 3 years for 3rd domestic burglary convictions

Question 8

How did incapacitation influence the Criminal Justice Act (2003)?

Answer 8

CJA introduced imprisonment for public protection (IPP)
- Indeterminate sentences (a sentence with no fixed end date) for dangerous offenders but removed in 2012

Question 9

Which theories does public protection link to?

Answer 9

Biological - Lombroso atavistic features
- Offenders are biologically different and cannot changed or be rehabilitated with Lombroso favoring exiling criminals to Alcatroz

Right Realism
- Incapacitation is seen as a way to protect public with a small number of persistent offenders
- Longer incapacitation reduced rates of crime

Question 10

What criticisms are there of public protection?

Answer 10

1. Incapacitation favors long sentences and means housing more prisoners which is costly (around £24,000 per prisoner annually)
2. Public protection doesn’t deal with the causes of crime or try to change it and is a strategy of containment
3. Seen as unjust as it assumes people recommit in the future