ABSTRACT
The key guiding aim of the research was to investigate community-based punishments as an alternative to a custodial sentence. United Kingdom has been subjected to the challenges of prison overcrowding, high prison expenditures and increase rate of offending among the custodial sentenced prisoners. For this purpose, the study focused on the concept of community-based punishments and the benefits of community-based punishments on the individuals who have experienced it through the review of European countries examples. The dissertation attempts to identify the similarities and differences of the custodial sentences and community-based punishments further highlighted that the latter option is a best and soft alternative of the former option. Community-based punishments are successfully implemented across the globe with the focus on the restorative justice approach. The option is capable of filtering the offenders according to the intensity and types of their crimes. There are multiple sub-options available for helping the offenders restore themselves towards the society. The soft alternative is also able to develop long-lasting relationships between the offenders and victims and society as a whole. However, it is important to note down that custodial sentences cannot be eliminated from the criminal justice system in order to protect the society from the dangerous criminals.
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
The chapter set out the context of the study in front of the readers to justify the rationale behind undertaking the current research on comparative analysis on the literature of community-based punishments and the custodial sentences. The sections in the chapter describe the research context, area of investigation, research problem, study scope and the main aim and research objectives needed to accomplished through the current study.
1.1 Research Context and Problems with Custodial Sentences
The judiciary system in most of the European countries is operating with some mechanism of non-custodial treatments along with the custodial sentences. Legislation and informal magistrate’s decisions favour the alternatives, which are beyond incarceration, as custody is not defined as a best solution for dealing with the offenders (Day, 2003). Community sentence or community-based punishment refers to the Orders of the Court; they have mandatory conditions that must be adhered to. The Court can also impose additional conditions on them. This punishment or sentence is good step for small criminals to give them all necessary punishment but in the society or any particular community. The reason behind such alternative is to avoid interaction between the small criminals and other big and serious criminals that have done murder or a other capital crime (Cullen et al., 2011). In contrary, custodial punishments are the kind punishments, which are directed towards the individuals for putting them into the custody of the police. It is further suggested that custodial punishments are generally directed towards the criminals that have been involved in committing severe crimes. A custodial sentence refers to the judicial sentence, which involves the punishment that consists of keeping the individual in the custody of the law enforcing agencies. These kinds of individuals are kept in the custody of the law enforcing agencies to ensure that they do not cause any threat to the society (Killias et al., 2010).
There are several reasons behind introduction of alternatives to the custodial sentencing. Overcrowding is among the biggest challenges faced. Modern trends in crime and criminal behaviours as well as increase in the authorities’ operations against these minor and major crimes are ultimately leading to overcrowded prisons. Many of the crimes such as illegal drug trafficking, family violence, traffic rule’s violation and sexual abuses are subjected to incarceration. Consequently, the prisons are experiencing too much load of criminals and prison overcrowding is becoming severe problems in order to maintain the legal expenditures of the nations (Day, 2003). In response to the challenge of overcrowding, a large portion of the European countries have brought mounted up the use of alternatives to custodial sentences including “pre-trial release, release on own recognizance, conditional release, restitution, community service or labour, the use of fines or payment by installments and the introduction of conditional and suspended sentences” (Day, 2003, p.13).
In the other context, besides overcrowding, the European countries have started realising that custodial sentences are also limiting the restoring and rehabilitation opportunities for the prisoners. As stated by Cozens et al., (2005) in the modern times, communities these days suffer from wide variety and range of crimes. It is further highlighted that social disintegration of every community leads towards the emergence of the commercial behavior within the society. According to Groot & Van Den Brink, (2010) there are some acts of crimes that are committed on a daily basis particularly petty crimes such as violation of traffic rules and many such individuals that have committed the crime for the very first time. Restoration of offenders therefore comes out as extremely important in changing the mentality of the community people. Modern situation of crimes in the society concentrates on the high need for restoration justice. Restorative justice is one of unique theoretical approach in the field of criminology, which is beyond the implementation of the passive legal principles. The concept disregards punishment as the vital solution for the offender while considers justice as a fundamental principle. Both the needs of victims as well as offenders are taken into account under restorative justice in contrary to the punitive approaches (Maiese, 2003). It is important to differentiate the restorative justice approach to the other approach such as Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), which aims to bring the disagreed parties to an agreement.
Despite the presence of great direction in theoretical context, practically European judicial systems including United Kingdom, lack resources to implement community based punishments. Problems can also be analysed with respect to limited acceptance at the authority and society levels both. Critics in England and Wales argue on the reoffending statistics of the offenders who were given community penalties and sentences earlier. People believe that community-based punishments result in unacceptably high rate of offending (BBC News, 2013). To identify community-based punishments as a soft alternative, there are still few evidences describing its effectiveness in comparison to different types of custodial sentences. For better implementation of the option, it is also necessary to examine the challenges and issues differentiating criminals qualifying themselves for community-based punishments and those who deserve custodial services. It is also necessary to consider the other factors needed for implementation of the community-based practices in the U.K.
1.2 Research Scope, Aim, Objectives and Question
The key guiding aim of the research was to investigate Community-Based Punishments as an Alternative to a Custodial Sentence. The research tends to include the secondary data about the individual countries, which have been experiencing the soft option of community-based punishments. For this purpose, research has reviewed the concept of community-based punishments and the benefits of community-based punishments on the individuals who have been made subject to it. The stated research aim will be accomplished by analyzing and discussing the existing community-based punishments. The main objective is to focus on restoration of offenders by giving them community punishments. This could only be achieved with the comparative analysis of the effectiveness of community-based punishments and custodial sentences. For this purpose, the study has also objectified the arguments using the relevant criminology theories such as restoration justice, community penalties theories, and the problems of custodial sentences requiring a shift towards soft option alternative especially in UK. Additionally, the current criminology thesis tends to seek the answer to the following research question: How are the community-based punishments different from the custodial services in restoring offenders with justice, equity, truth, hope and impartiality?
1.3 Research Layout
The remaining part of the thesis is divided into following chapters. Chapter Two Literature Review critically analyses the range of criminology theories such as restorative justice approach behind community-based punishments and revengeful and retribution punitive approaches behind custodial sentencing. It also reviews the published academic journals relevant to the scope of the research, and adds to its authenticity. Chapter Three Dissertation Methodology offers insight into the chosen research methodology used for data collection and data analysis in the current study. It highlights the philosophical stance applied in searching the reliable and valid results and answers to the research questions. Chapter Four Results presents and analyses the findings of the secondary research articles selected to investigate the chosen phenomenon i.e. comparative analysis of the community-based punishments with the custodial sentences. The chapter further discusses the secondary and primary research findings together. In the last, Fifth Chapter, Dissertation Conclusion and research recommendations are given to summarise the key research insights and suggestions for implementation of community-based punishments in UK.
