do you think the law and sentences given out by judges are effective in preventing crimes in our country?

Question

please state the reasons.

Answer 1

No they are not but unless the public let their mp know that they are not happy then nothing will change ...send an email to your MP ..it takes five mins.....here is the web address to find your MP and his email address


http://www.psr.keele.ac.uk/area/uk/mps.h...
please use it

Answer 2

A prison sentence is only really effective if the person undergoes rehabilitation while they are serving the sentence. To merely lock people up and not tackle the reasons behind their need to commit crime does not address anything. Obviously there are different types of prisoner, one cannot apply the same rules to a person being held on remand for example,as they are not proven to have done anything. But once sentenced, the issues need to be tackled and people given the tools they need to lead a fulfilling life within the boundaries of the law. The threat of a prison sentence to many does not act as a deterrent because many know they will have association with others and lots of time on their hands, time which needs to be fully occupied with learning wether they like it or not. I say this with a very balanced view having been in prison myself on remand, but being held alongside convicted women, albeit in Spain, the basics are the same though

Answer 3

I think that the process of punishing does not deter crime. In making this statement, I call upon the opening chapter of Michel Foucault's "discipline and punish". Foucault was one of the best thinkers of his generation, and he begins discipline and punish with a transcription from the executioners notes on an individual who was hung, drawn and quartered for attempting regicide. The punishment for the attempted murder of the monarch was well known, and yet the individual had tried and been caught and was now being punished in the manner appropriate to the crime - to be hung, drawn and quartered.

The description of how the executioner could not quarter the prisoner by tearing him apart with cart horses, hooks and chains is one of the most memorable passages I have ever read. The executioner took an axe to the individual to help the four cart horses in their task of ripping him apart, quartering him. After an amazingly graphic opening, drawn upon an historical document that transcribed the event, Foucault makes the simple point that the individual concerned knew the punishment, and yet still did the crime, so how can punishment possibly be deemed to be an effective deterrent?

Answer 4

First, remember that most sentences handed out are not determined by judges, but rather established by statute. So, blame the legislators for most of the sentences.

As to effectiveness, I would have said the answer was "obviously not". But, looking at the US statistics (assuming they are accurate), it looks like there's been approximately a 45% drop in serious crimes over the past thirty years, and over a 60% drop in property/theft crimes in the same period.

This has to be attributable to something, and absence any other evidence, the credit would have to go to the criminal justice system.

Answer 5

NO! take 4 example the case of a bus driver mucking around behind the wheel on the way 2 school with a load of kids, he was swerving everywhere and the kids were yelling at him 2 slow down as they were scared (they were only about 12yr old) and he crashed head on with another car, flipped the bus and killed a girl when she hit the roof of the bus as it flipped. she was 12 yrs old. the driver (who had no proper licence or insurance) pleaded not guilty of dangerous driving and instead was found guilty of the lesser charge of careless driving, he got a 6month driving ban and a fine of just £250! is that the price of a life? that's y a lot of ppl r also campaigning for demi-leigh's law (a 3yr old girl who was run over when a van mounted the path) which we hope will get the law changed for harsher sentences that reflect the true brutality of the crimes.

Answer 6

No, I think the number of repeat offenders are a good indication that the system is not working. Jail is a crime school. When a person graduates he is more knowledgeable on how to comment crime without getting caught. We need to use rehabilitation methods like basic education and vocational training to lower the crime in America.

Answer 7

Not really. Anyone who would do a crime believes that they would get away with it with just the right planning, if you don't get caught who cares what you would have gotten. Whether they will get caught or not is not what matters, but whether they believe they will or not is what matters when they decide to do a crime, and anyone who would doesn't believe they will be caught.

That or they don't care about the consequences, usually in the cases of murder.

Everyone else doesn't commit a crime, not out of fear of the law but out of their own personal morality. They wouldn't lie, cheat, steal, or kill whether the law existed or not.

Answer 8

apparently not even while prisoners are in jail. both take effect after the crime has occurred, so the only opportunity is as a deterrent. more people are deterred by a sense of right and wrong than law. some people have no concern for either. others view it as a badge of honor.

Answer 9

No. It seems the more petty the crime, the more time you spend in jail. You have those that molest and kill and seem to get out early, while those that are in there for drugs tend to spend more time in jail. Many people in jail shouldnt even be in jail. A lot of them should be in a drug rehab program so they can become clean and be able to work in society and function like everyone else. Molesters should be in there forever, once a molester, always a molester. That is a disease.
Some people can't be rehabilitated unfortunately, so there has to be a way to seperate those that can and those that can't so we don't waste space in our jails. It's ashame that Joe Bong is in jail for possesion of pot for a few years. He should go to rehab and get cleaned up. Not sit in jail while we have killers, rapists, and molesters on the loose.

Answer 10

No, but there is to much thought in to what the judges give, and not enough on what goes on once their locked up. Life is far to good in prison, it needs to be harder so they don't want to risk getting caught again. Prisoners, have Colour TV,s with DVD players, PS2, They go to Gym nearly everyday, large choice of meals, almost no discipline.
The judges are out of date, but as well as longer, sentences they need to know that they have been locked up.