The State, on society’s behalf, is responsible for penalizing harms committed against a person, group, or the State itself. It imposes punishments on perpetrators of a crime with five key goals in mind: deterrence, incapacitation, rehabilitation, restitution, and retribution; the effects of these goals are further evaluated in penology. Penology is a division of criminology, or the study of crimes, that studies the punishment of crime, and “concerns itself with the philosophy and practice of society in its efforts to repress criminal activities.” (Britannica, 2014)
One of the earliest known theorists of criminology was Cesare Beccaria; he opined that “the end of punishment, therefore, is no other than to prevent the criminal from doing further
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This goal, in spite of this, is somewhat defeated by the characters of Andy Dufresne, Red also known as Ellis Boyd, and Boggs Diamond. For instance, with protection from the guards and the warden, Andy Dufresne is entrusted and eventually threatened2 (Darabont, 1994) to launder money for the warden, Commissioner Samuel Norton; as he is explaining to another inmate how he does it, he says that “on the outside [he] was an honest man…[but] had to come to prison to be a crook,” 3 (Darabont, 1994) ;he escaped the prison that was purposed to keep him from committing more crimes against society, and ironically, used the warden’s ‘retirement fund’ to sustain him once he escaped Shawshank Prison. Though not as serious of an offense, Red the resourceful inmate, could smuggle almost anything a fellow inmate needed into the prison.
On the other hand, Boggs diamond, the prison rapist who belonged to a gang called The Sisters; repeatedly sexually assaulted Andy Dufresne and brutally beat him, which caused Andy’s month long stay in the prison’s infirmary. Consequently, Bogs is put in “the hole”, also known as solitary confinement, as punishment. After he gets out he is brutally assaulted by the captain of the guards which results in him being paralyzed. Following this incident he is sent to a minimum security hospital, “where he
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This is more apparent in Brooks’ case- he had been in prison since 1912 and was now an old man; while imprisoned he got through his time by working in the prison’s library, and after fifty years behind bars he was finally paroled, but unfortunately could not cope with the outside world and opted to commit suicide. Red described Brooks’ situation as being ‘institutionalized’, and that “prison walls are funny… [because one] gets used to [them;]…enough time passes… [and one] get[s] dependent” 5 (Darabont, 1994) on the prison
The creators of this movie used several effective, and often subtle, methods to illustrate the hope found in Andy and his surroundings. Andy was always portrayed as a clean-cut and well-groomed prisoner with his shirt always buttoned and his hair always combed. This self-respect was in great contrast to the other prisoners who were portrayed as dirty, stereotypical prisoners. The common prisoners also had vocabularies and grammar that were far inferior to Andy’s. The distinctions between Andy and the common prisoners showed that Andy was different, those differences were that he had hope.
"The Shawshank Redemption" is a compelling film about two imprisoned convicted murderers. Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), is innocent, however. Convicted of killing his wife and her lover (a crime for which he clearly had a strong motive), he really "didn't do". Of course, as his jailbird friend "Red" (Morgan Freeman) puts it, "Everybody in here is innocent." Well, Red is "the only guilty man" in Shawshank Prison. As their friendship develops, Andy learns the ropes of prison. Meanwhile, the warden (Bob Gunton) decides that Andy, a well- educated former banker could carry out something more useful than laundry. So, he places Andy as the prison librarian, and later, as his an accountant (he does taxes for all the jail's employees). Andy also assists the warden in money scams (as he tells Red, "I was always an honest man - I had to come to jail to become a crook!")
Before long, in the wake of approaching Red for "Rita Hayworth", Andy again experienced the Sisters’ brutal beating, which led him to being in the prison infirmary for a month. Boggs, the leader of "The Sisters", was sent to solitary, and after getting out in a week, Hadley and his men beat him so badly that he was left paralyzed, which led to him being transferred to a prison hospital upstate, and the Sisters never bothered Andy again. When Andy got out of the infirmary, he found a bunch of rocks and a poster of Rita Hayworth in his cell that were gifts from Red and his buddies.
Many of the prisoners were affected mentally by the administration of Shawshank; the key players included Warden Samuel Norton. Norton embodies the contradictory corruption of Shawshank. He justifies his manipulation in the name of faith, and the bible. “The people who run this place are stupid, brutal monsters for the most part. The people who run the straight world are brutal and monstrous, but they happen not to be quite as stupid, because the standard of competence out there is a little higher. Not much, but a little” (53) this quote indicates that the prisoners see the administrators as monsters rather than human this could be caused by infliction of psychological pain. Brooks Hatlen is an example of how the prison system handicapped him mentally into being reliant on the prison system. “What lay beyond its walls was as terrible to Brooks as the western seas had been to superstitious fifteenth century sailors. He was the librarian, an educated man. If he went to the Kittery library and asked for a job they wouldn’t even give him a library card. I heard he died in a home for indignant old folks up Freeport way in 1953, and that he lasted about six months longer than I thought he would. Yea I guess the state got its own back on Brooksie, all right. They trained him to like it inside the shit house and then they threw him out.” (49) Brooks had been at Shawshank since his late twenties. He left at the ripe old age of Sixty-Eight. Shawshank had become his hom...
First, Andy preserves his self-respect by fighting or defending himself from the rape squad of Shawshank Prison known as “The Sisters”.
The film illustrates the subculture within the fictional Shawshank State Prison in Maine. In this prison, inmates fulfill certain roles such as the dominant, masculine male, the helpless, feminine man, and the inmate that stands out. This is similar to real prisons and helps develop specific culture, expectations of behaviors and norms, and values within the prison. Furthermore, the inmate that plays the role of a smuggler of outside items, helps to establish the norms of currency between the inmates. Lastly, for the inmates, Shawshank is
Society has long since operated on a system of reward and punishment. That is, when good deeds are done or a person behaves in a desired way they SP are rewarded, or conversely punished when behaviour does not meet the societal norms. Those who defy these norms and commit crime are often punished by organized governmental justice systems through the use of penitentiaries, where prisoners carry out their sentences. The main goals of sentencing include deterrence, safety of the public, retribution, rehabilitation, punishment and respect for the law (Government of Canada, 2013). However, the type of justice system in place within a state or country greatly influences the aims and mandates of prisons and in turn targets different aspects of sentencing goals. Justice systems commonly focus on either rehabilitative or retributive measures.
The film stars Tim Robbins as Andrew 'Andy' Dufresne and Morgan Freeman as Ellis Boyd 'Red' Redding. The film portrays Andy spending nearly two decades in Shawshank State Prison, a surreal house of correction in Maine and his friendship with Red, a fellow inmate, which gradually develops over the years. Consequently the three reasons that the director wanted to produce this movie are to reveal hope, despair and integrity. Red describes the reasons eloquently: “All I know for sure is that Andy Dufresne wasn’t much like me or anyone else I ever knew. . . . It was a kind of inner light he carried around with him.”
Criminological theories interpret the competing paradigms of Human Nature, Social Order, Definition of Crime, Extent and Distribution of Crime, Causes of Crime, and Policy, differently. Even though these theories have added to societies understanding of criminal behaviour, all have been unable to explain why punishment or treatment of offenders is unable to prevent deviancy, and thus are ineffective methods of control. The new penology is a contemporary response that favours the management of criminals by predicting future harm on society. However, all criminological theories are linked as they are a product of the historical time and place, and because of their contextual history, they will continue to reappear depending on the current state of the world, and may even be reinvented.
Beccaria, a European theorizer, had the most influence on penology. "His work had a profound effect on criminal punishment the world over." Beccaria wrote "the purpose of punishment is not to torment a sensible being, or to undo a crime [but] is none other than to prevent the criminal from doing further injury to society and to prevent others from committing the like offense." This is how...
There are many different aspects of criminal justice policy. One in particular is the different theories of crime and how they affect the criminal justice system. The Classical School of criminology is a theory about evolving from a capital punishment type of view to more humane ways of punishing people. Positivist criminology is maintaining the control of human behavior and criminal behavior. They did this through three different categories of Biological studies, which are five methodologies of crime that were mainly focused on biological theories, Psychological theories, which contains four separate theories, and the Sociological theories, which also includes four different methods of explaining why crime exists. The last theory is about Critical criminology. Their goal was to transform society in a way that would liberate and empower subordinate groups of individuals.
Punishing the unlawful, undesirable and deviant members of society is an aspect of criminal justice that has experienced a variety of transformations throughout history. Although the concept of retribution has remained a constant (the idea that the law breaker must somehow pay his/her debt to society), the methods used to enforce and achieve that retribution has changed a great deal. The growth and development of society, along with an underlying, perpetual fear of crime, are heavily linked to the use of vastly different forms of punishment that have ranged from public executions, forced labor, penal welfare and popular punitivism over the course of only a few hundred years. Crime constructs us as a society whilst society, simultaneously determines what is criminal. Since society is always changing, how we see crime and criminal behavior is changing, thus the way in which we punish those criminal behaviors changes.
The Classical School of Criminology generally refers to the work of social contract and utilitarian philosophers Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham during the enlightenment in the 18th century. The contributions of these philosophers regarding punishment still influence modern corrections today. The Classical School of Criminology advocated for better methods of punishment and the reform of criminal behaviour. The belief was that for a criminal justice system to be effective, punishment must be certain, swift and in proportion to the crime committed. The focus was on the crime itself and not the individual criminal (Cullen & Wilcox, 2010). This essay will look at the key principles of the Classical School of Criminology, in particular
Punishment has been in existence since the early colonial period and has continued throughout history as a method used to deter criminals from committing criminal acts. Philosophers believe that punishment is a necessity in today’s modern society as it is a worldwide response to crime and violence. Friedrich Nietzche’s book “Punishment and Rehabilitation” reiterates that “punishment makes us into who we are; it creates in us a sense of responsibility and the ability to take and release our social obligations” (Blue, Naden, 2001). Immanuel Kant believes that if an individual commits a crime then punishment should be inflicted upon that individual for the crime committed. Cesare Beccaria, also believes that if there is a breach of the law by individuals then that individual should be punished accordingly.
This essay will examine the early approaches of criminology which aided in its development using the theories of Beccaria (theory of freewill) and Lombroso (biological theory), and will compare the arguments for rehabilitation and for treatment. An answer to what Criminology could be is that it is the scientific/theoretical study of crime and criminals which incorporates into its study both individuals, society and organisations. Criminology came about at the end of the 1700s from society’s need to understand crime in the social world. The purpose of Criminology is to give us an insight into the criminal mind/world. Criminology incorporates other social sciences such as psychology, history