CRJU 312: Corrections Notes

Part Two: Schools of Thought on Punishment-

● Schools of Thought: p​ articular way of thinking about something so we're interested in
particular ways about thinking about corrections and punishment.
● There are two:
○ 1. Classical School
■ Came about during the Age of Enlightenment
● 1650s - late 1700s
● Believed that people are hedonistic; aka people value pleasure and
don't like pain, so everything that we do is in pursuit of pleasure
and in avoidance of pain
■ Criminal behavior is the result of free will, is rational, and involves
weighing the costs and benefits of action
■ Goal is to maximize pleasure and minimize pain
■ **individual choice, no outside influences or factors**
● Ex: premeditated crimes
■ Rational choice theory
● Stems from classical school and is still around today
● Crime is a choice (Free will)
● Premise = crime will occur when benefits outweigh the costs
■ Deterrence theory​: related but assumes laws may have a deterrent effect
on human behavior
■ Cesare Beccaria
● Suggested that punishments should fit the crime
○ Proportionate to what was done
● Evenly applied aspect
○ Everyone should be treated equally, and receive the same
punishment for the same crime
■ And this should be written into law
● Idea of deterrence
○ Punishment can deter people from committing crimes in the
first place
■ The idea or threat of punishment is enough
○ 2. Positivist School
■ After the Age of Enlightenment
● In the 1800s
● Time of science and forming conclusions based on measurable and
observable things and outcomes
 ○ You can’t measure free will and the unseen motivations of
people committing the crimes (from Classical School)
● They were interested in genetic makeups or the hereditariness of
crime, but basically just saying that behavior is determined by
factors outside of people's control.
● Along with that there are certain things that cause different actions.
○ Measurably, you can determine what is happening before
the actions of crime in order to determine any sort of
punishment that goes along with that.
■ Criminal behavior is controlled by external (physical, mental, and social)
factors
■ Use of scientific method
● Is there evidence to support the theory?
■ Raffaele Garofalo
● Thought that sentencing should be customized based on risk
factors and an offender's level of dangerousness to society
● didn't so much believe in the idea of rehabilitation, but he believed
that you should punish people based on those predetermined
factors that would lead them to commit more crime
○ Believed in incapacitating them for a period of time
■ Length dependant on the severity of the crime
committed.
● Difference between the two:
○ Classical School really focuses on the offense
○ Positivist School more focuses on the offender
○ Classical School, we are interested in tailoring punishments to fit the offense
○ more interested in tailoring sentences to fit the offender with the Positivist School

Part Three: Justifications for Punishment:

● There are 6 justifications for punishment:
○ 1. Retribution
■ punishment gives the offender what they deserve
■ ‘Just Deserts’ Model
■ the idea that somebody is getting what they deserve and they are getting
something that's proportionate to their own offense
● **assuming that humans act with their own free will
○ 2. Deterrence
■ the idea that you can prevent crime through the threat of swift, certain, and
severe punishment
 ● Prevent it because you are scared of the punishment you would
receive
○ 3. Incapacitation
■ Preventing a crime with physical barriers
● Done through incarceration
● Protects the general public from further harm
○ 4. Rehabilitation
■ strives to change the offender so that they are inherently law-abiding
● trying to change the offender from the inside to change their way
of thinking about crime and the way they view the law
○ Basically trying to make them a better person
○ 5. Reintegration
■ prepares the offender for reentry into the community
■ assumes that people are going to be released, and it tries to prepare the
offender for reentry back into the community.
■ types of punishments are going to be more like providing services for
inmates
● Ex: job training, education, all those things that are going to
prepare them to reenter the community and to be better prepared
for life on the outside
○ 6. Restoration
■ we should attempt to repair the harm caused by the crime
● The way that people punish through restoration is by giving
everyone involved an equal say in the punishment.
○ This is most often used with nonviolent offenders, in
particular juveniles, and what they'll do is sit down with the
victim and the offender and a mediator and decide what's
the best course of action that could repair the harm caused
by the crime.