Crime and Choice

A recent exposé about life inside the United States extra-territorial prison complex at Guantanamo (Adams, 2013) raises important questions about crime and punishment. As the unfortunate success of the torture glorification film Zero Dark Thirty shows (Greenwald, 2013), the catharsis to be found in reacting to crime with retribution remains an intoxicatingly popular idea. The problem is that there is no evidence that it works. There is a danger that real problems will go unresolved if legislators give in to the the popular, though unsubstantiated approach, in the name of giving the people what they demand. Further, doing so may only cause more suffering as problems are compounded by new blights created by the ineffective system.

In the UK, high reoffending rates, along with rising numbers of prisoners and a crime rate amongst the highest in Western Europe (Travis & Sparrow, 2010), suggests that a different approach needs to be found. Mr Ken Clarke, the 'liberal conservative' Secretary of State for Justice - before he was moved away from that office in the 2012 cabinet reshuffle - had been working to try and change Britain's prison and sentencing culture (Crook, 2012). The changes he sought to bring in included the improvement of rehabilitation in prisons. Through work and education, along with the tackling of drugs, drink and other social issues, he aimed at reducing the spiralling reoffending rates (Travis & Mulholland, 2010).

However, his departure from the position brought a halt to the UK's pursuit of prison reform.

There is plenty of reason to believe that the UK and other countries should get back on the path to prison reform. Norway is an example that shows us what we need to be working towards: it has amongst the lowest reoffending rates in the world, a small prison population, and all with humane prison conditions (Adams, 2010). Norway's system, a more humane system, while profoundly effective at reforming offenders, would also be less expensive than that employed presently in the UK or the US - where the high cost per inmate means that the high prison population is becoming a serious economic issue.

What stands in the way is the 'ideological criminal'. Most ideologies come pre-packed with perceptions of human beings and their relationships to each other. A problematic part of these dogmas are their inflexible attitudes towards human behaviour - categorising people without regard for individual circumstances: the poor are poor and the rich are rich because that is how that particular societal outlook says that things are (Hickson, 2009). The 'criminal classes' is an old idea. But it is a stigma that has - as crime has been studied more closely - been weakened, with a greater awareness being developed about the complex causes behind individual crimes (Emsley, 2002).

Unfortunately those stigmas can be reinforced by zealous vigilantism. These campaigns start with ordinary people in ordinary communities who want cathartic retribution on those who have caused them fear. But they are turned into something else as they are exploited, used and directed to whip up public pressure behind a particular course or legislative direction - becoming the 'loud voices' in society, demanding more punitive responses and less tolerance (Hancock, 2004).

The failures of extra-judicial terror to stop terrorism, the failure of retribution to stop crime and reoffending, should be telling us that part of the task of overcoming the blight of crime is to start tackling those stigmas that exist in public opinion towards criminals. We must understand and deal with, in an intelligent way, the social aspects to crime - the worlds that offenders come from, the situations, the opportunities - and make our response to crime more than just reaction.

Choice, is an essential aspect of human freedom. It is through the making of choices that we shape and learn our capacity to think reasonably and rationally about the world. So we must be ever vigilant for threats that limit choice. The conditions in which crime proliferates - poverty and squalidness - are a serious threat to choice. If we are to deal with those threats, then we must do more than punish or rehabilitate offenders; we must address the stigmas and falsehoods, and tackle the problems in the worlds that they come from.

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References:
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+ Tim Adams' 'The General: The Ordinary Man Who Challenged Guantánamo by Ahmed Errachidi – review'; in The Guardian; 7 April 2013.

+ Glenn Greenwald's 'Zero Dark Thirty, the CIA and film critics have a very bad evening'; in The Guardian; 25 February 2013.

+ Alan Travis & Andrew Sparrow's 'Kenneth Clarke hints at prison sentencing reform with attack on 'bang 'em' up culture'; 30 June 2010;

+ Frances Crook's 'We'll miss Ken Clarke as justice secretary - he's saved money and lives'; in the New Statesman; 4 September 2012.

+ Alan Travis & Hélène Mulholland's 'Prison system failing to tackle reoffending, says Ken Clarke'; 7 December 2010;

Halt on prison reform references:
Nicholas Watt's 'New migrants will have to wait a year for legal aid';
Press Association's 'Prisoners may lose legal aid for jail complaints';
Sarah Vine's 'Our justice system is being turned into Profit & Growth plc';
Nicholas Watt's 'Kenneth Clarke defends European court of human rights after Tory attacks';

+ William Lee Adams' 'Sentenced to Serving the Good Life in Norway'; in Time; 12 July 2010.

+ Kevin Hickson's 'Conservatism and the poor: Conservative party attitudes to poverty and inequality since the 1970s'; in British Politics; Palgrave; 2009.

+ Clive Emsley's 'The History of Crime and Crime Control Institutions'; in The Oxford Handbook of Criminology; Oxford University Press; 2002.

+ Lynn Hancock's 'Criminal Justice, Public Opinion, Fear and Popular Politics'; in Student Handbook of Criminal Justice and Criminology; Cavendish; 2004.

-For more on Crime & Rehabilitation
Prison Reform Trust submission to the Ministry of Justice 'Breaking the Cycle: Effective Punishment,  Rehabilitation and Sentencing of Offenders';
Ministry of Justice 'Compendium of reoffending statistics and analysis';