Probation, the most frequently used criminal sanction, is a sentence that an offender serves in the community in lieu of incarceration.
Are mid-range punishments for offenders desirable?
- In the mid-1980s, a broad-based consensus emerged as to the desirability of developing mid-range punish- ments for offenders for whom incarceration was unnec- essarily severe and ordinary probation was inappropri- ately light. Three converging conditions and events drove the development of this consensus. 1.
What is the effectiveness of punishment?
- The effectiveness of punishment relates to how far it is successful in suppressing the undesired behavior. Effectiveness depends upon practices that work in general, and those that work with specific populations; the effects are not necessarily the same.
What is punishment in psychology?
- Most psychologists define punishment as a process of presenting a consequence, delivered after a behavior, which serves to reduce the frequency or intensity with which the behavior occurs (Lefton, 1991). The consequence, i.e. the punishment, can either be providing an undesirable stimulus or removing a desirable stimulus.
Why do some states have tougher penalties?
- Because these states did not have the funds to build new prisons (as other states experiencing prison population growth initially did), judicial pressure created an incentive for them to develop tough but inexpensive sentences, specifically those that did not require a prison cell.
Probation is the most common form of correctional punishment for criminal activity. It allows an offender to stay within the community, but under the supervision of a probation officer. Approximately 61 percent of convicted individuals are sentenced to probation.