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Criminal Psychology

Effects of imprisonment and reform as responses to offending

  • 3 things to know
  • Component 03

Overview

Recall questions on short custodial sentences, prisonisation, institutionalisation, prisons as schools for crime, psychological effects of imprisonment on inmates and families, non-custodial responses, therapeutic community prisons, and punishing versus reforming.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

Explain the tension between punishing and reforming an offender in the same institution.

Key term

Why are prisons described as schools for crime?

Key term

Name three psychological effects of imprisonment on inmates.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Why are short custodial sentences particularly criticised?

    Model answer

    They are long enough for the offender to lose their job, housing and family ties but too short for any rehabilitation programme, and they are followed by the highest reoffending rates.

  2. 2

    What is prisonisation?

    Model answer

    The process by which prisoners take on the customs, values and language of the inmate culture, which are usually opposed to those of the outside world.

  3. 3

    What is institutionalisation, and why does it matter on release?

    Model answer

    It is the loss of the capacity to make ordinary decisions after years in which everything was decided for the prisoner, leaving them unable to manage money, work and housing once released.

  4. 4

    Why are prisons described as schools for crime?

    Model answer

    Inmates spend their time among people with pro-criminal attitudes who teach techniques and supply contacts, so association within the prison makes further offending more likely.

  5. 5

    Name three psychological effects of imprisonment on inmates.

    Model answer

    Depression, anxiety and raised rates of self-harm and suicide, especially during the first weeks of custody.

  6. 6

    How does imprisonment affect the offender's family?

    Model answer

    The family loses income and often housing, partners face stigma and isolation, and children of prisoners show raised rates of behavioural problems and later offending.

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APunishment requires deprivation, loss of autonomy and stigma.
BReform requires trust, responsibility and self-respect.
CThe regime that achieves one tends to undermine the other.

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