Paper Example on Courts Struggling to Modernize Punishment of Criminals

In the modern world, the courts have not yet modernized their form of punishment to criminals. Most of the criminal courts exhibit punitive measures to law offenders. This is contrary to the efforts that have been done in reforming the life in prison. The attitude of bringing sanity into the criminal courts are diminishing with others still advocating for the punitive measures. The harsh judgement by the judges is always celebrated at times with various people in the society, including the politicians. The aspects of criminal justice, that is, law enforcement, correction and the courts are not adhered to. With this kind of scenario, redeemability of the criminals cannot be achieved. However, different researchers have argued on how courts can change the behavior of individuals. They suggest that once a criminal, always a criminal, hence committing a crime is an act of choice, and once someone chooses to commit a crime, they cannot change (Dhami & al-Nowaihi 2018)

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On the contrary, others say that since committing a crime is a matter of choice, and then one can also choose to change the attitude. This forms the basis of our essay regarding the two contradictory suggestions that lead to punitive measures being taken to the crime offenders. The courts have managed to construct various theories about the causal attributions and to explain as to why people make mistakes in their lifetime (Hamilton 2016).

Various bodies have researched punitiveness. Many believe that punitive measures are extracted from direct experience of crime and victimization on the law. Those who have turned against the lawbreakers are hiding in courts trying to perpetrate another crime while in the correctional facilities. There has being a severe public cry about how criminals are being treated in jail. It raised tension in the court system and through that, an aspect of change was detected. In a nutshell, punitive measures do not help someone to redeem himself/ herself. It increases the agony and pain of the offender. This is according to research conducted in Scotland. Actions on causal attributions are sometimes referred to a mere public relations being played by the courts to please the public on their actions on reforming the jail sector. Practically, the causal attributions have failed in reducing the punitive measures taken against those who break the law. The views from the public on disciplinary is otherwise taken for granted by those who enforce the law (Hamill 2018). They term them as views that do not need explanation. However, two great philosophers, Sutherland and Cressey argue that "there has been no constant desire to make all criminals suffer and the system used in inflicting suffering to criminals has changed time to time. The punitive reaction to law-breaking has not been present to all the societies and in fact, it varies from time to time within a given society."

To get the real results about how punitiveness is being done in jails, the forms of the punitive, why is it done, and to which type of the crime attracts the harsh punishment, a survey was conducted. The survey majorly targeted those who are in prison, those who served their term of imprisonment to completion, those released on bonds, and subordinate staff in the prison department. Police officers were also incorporated in the survey since they are the one who by all means perpetuate the vice. Judges from different regions and different levels of courts were included in the survey to help in coming up with a tangible report about punitive, redeemability and causal attributions to prisoners. Various methods of data collection were used. Interviews, recordings, observation, and questionnaires were all used in the success of the report (Lin 2016).

To successfully gather the correct information, making a rapport was necessary with the target audience. Choosing the interview questions and the environment was also vital. The device for recording the audio was also needed to ensure accurate information from the audience. Nevertheless, the secrecy of the participants was highly confided, and the information they gave was not used anywhere else without their consent. The information was only used in the undergraduate criminology course in the case of my assignment. Consequently, the information was destroyed after serving the intended purpose.

Interviews

To collect the desired information, the use of interviews was paramount. The meeting was majorly used to those who served their term in prison to completion. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were incorporated in trying to come up with a piece of clear information about punitiveness in courts. The location of the interview was secretive and was only revealed to the interviewee a few hours before the start of the interview. This followed the guidelines on learning the craft on qualitative research interviewing. The article describes in detail on how to start a conversation, how to prepare the location of the interview, and on how to prepare the interviewee. The report also talks about how to formulate the questions to be used in the interview and listening skills. All those factors were incorporated and used exhaustively in coming up with this sample of an interview. The location considered was to be comfortable both physically and psychological to both the interviewee and the interviewer. A series of questions were asked in the attempt of getting the whole story about punitiveness, redeemability and causal attributions. This was the epitome of the issues. Below is a draft of the issues that engaged the interviewer and the interviewee;

• Can you tell as an instance that you did that made you ended up in jail?
• How was the life in jail in terms of diet, relationship with others, relationship with police officers, and is there any form of punishment or not?
• How did you feel when mistreated by the police?
• What kind of punishment does police give to the criminals?
• Do we have any sought of harassment from other inmates apart from police offers?
• How do the police handle the case of harassment from other inmates in jail?
• How has life in criminal changed your way of doing things initially?
• What does the court do to stop increases in crime?
• What advice can you give to the judicial service to stop punitive measures against the lawbreakers? What are your alternative suggestions?
• Finally, do you believe being in jail can change someone behaviours against doing a crime?

The above questions made the interaction between the interviewee and the interviewer to be a charming session. Most of those who participated in the interview did not want to reveal the identity. The attitude towards crime and punishment revealed itself during the discussion. The meeting was done between the 30th of March and 1st of April (Hamilton 2016).

Audio recording

During the process of the interview, the audio was being recorded to get the whole story naturally during the analysis accurately. According to the article on doing qualitative analysis, a recording is one of the ways in noting the information from the respondent. The article highlights how a successful record can be done during an interview (Mann et al., 2019). The criteria highlighted is what this report depends on majorly. Cameras are being set before the start of the interview and briefing the interviewee that he/ she will be filmed during the process. It makes them to be relaxed and to know precisely what is going on. For quality video and audio recordings, one needs to use a minimum of two quality cameras that capture both the voice and the picture. During analysis or presentation, the identity of the interviewers should be respected as requested. Shading of the face while playing the video, altering the voice waves and use of imaginary names are ways to protect the identity of the interviewee. During video coverage, one should not expose the background so much since it can quickly reveal the place where the interview took place. With all the aspects in mind, the video-audio recording was correctly done with all the privacy in place.

Observation

It is a very critical way of collecting data. It needs highly expert personnel who can interpret and understand what is going on in the area of observation without being noticed. In extreme circumstance, one needs to act as an undercover for him/ her to understand some as to why people are being treated brutally. In this case study, the observation was used to collect information about attitude towards crime and punishment. Five skilled personnel were deployed in various correctional facilities to identify the type of punitive measures being taken by the government against lawbreakers. This was conducted for three weeks to come up with a concrete decision about the attitude on crime and punishment. However, the process was not much success because the researcher did not confine himself on the set of rules that were set. It was agreed that the observer should show up daily from 6:00 pm in prison to understand how the activities are conducted in jail. The little information gathered, though not satisfactorily done, still played a vital role in the analysis of the data.

Questionnaires

It is a widely used tool in different researches during data collection, and this is not exceptional. The target audience for this tool is mostly people who cannot be reached for interviews. Still, their contributions to the topic of study are significant hence reaching them through a questionnaire. A well-drafted type of questions, both closed and open-ended, is used in trying to find the attitude of crime and punishment. In this case study, the target audience to administer this tool of collecting data were the police officers, subordinate staff in prison, judges (though not all), prisoners, and some of those who were released on bond. The sample of questions is as below

• Is there corporal punishment in jail? Yes/ no? If yes, kindly explain the type of the sentence.
• Is the punishment offered to lawbreakers equal to the mistake they have committed? Yes/ no?
• How does severe punishment help someone to change his/ her attitude towards committing a crime?
• Do you believe prison is a correctional facility despite all the efforts in reforming the place?
• Do you support punitive measures to be taken against those who break the law? Yes/ no?
• How do punitive measures help someone in reforming his/ her behaviours?
• As judges, do you support punitive measures in prisons? If yes, does it not contradict with the rights and freedom of people in jail?
• In your own opinion, what do you think can be done to change the idea of punitive measures? And what is the alternative for this?
• Who are the main perpetrators of punitive measures in prison?
• Do you believe that this vice can be eradicated in our prison? Give details to support your answer.

The above questions served the exact need on what was needed as far as the punitive measures and the attitude on is concerned. However, various challenges were encountered during the participation of this activity. The target audience was not exhaustively reached; hence the information provided might not be as accurate as intended to be. It was disadvantageous to semi-illiterate individuals who could not read and understand the questions being asked. It was a hard nut to crack to those who could not express themselves in English, hence interfering with the results. Nevertheless, the information needed was provided by those who were reached and could express themselves.

Through the above process of collecting data in different ways, it has expanded our knowledge on how to make positive criticism to the interviewee, how to collect data, how to build a rapport with the audience before beginning the exercise. It has...