Criminal Justice
Stream 1
Four Pillars of a Criminal Justice
System
 Rehabilitation
 Safety
 Deterrence
 Retribution
Rehabilitation
How does the justice system
help rehabilitation?
 The parole system incentivises good behaviour
 To get parole initially
 When you are out of prison on parole
 We can provide rehabilitation services to
criminals like education
 Conciliation between victims and perpetrators
How does the criminal justice
system hurt rehabilitation?
 Resentment of society and the state
 Creation of criminal networks
 Difficulty of getting a job outside of prison
 Australia has a 50% recidivism rate
Safety
How is the criminal justice
system good for safety?
 Victims are protected (e.g. from an ongoing
abuser)
 Because criminals are kept locked away, they
can’t reoffend and inflict harm on other people
Deterrence
Why do prisons deter
people
 Rational choice theory
 Discursive changes in the way we think about
crime
Why might the deterrent effect
fail??
 Criminals are often really irrational
 Lack education
 Crimes of passion
 Economic desperation/drug addiction etc.
 People are optimistic that they won’t get caught
 Sometimes it is basically impossible to enforce
crimes (rape, drugs)
Retributive
Justice
Why does the criminal justice
system give retributive justice?
 Victims can recover if the perpetrator is in jail
 Society’s desire for justice is met
 People get what they deserve
Putting it all
together
What can we do with these
concepts?
 Think about how the model makes the things we
have discussed better/worse
Then analyse stakeholders with
them
 Will crime go up or down as a result of this
model?
 How will prisoners be affected by it?
 Will it be more moral/just?
Helpful Rule of Thumb
 Your stakeholders should generally be the way
you structure/label your arguments
 What does this do to levels of crime?
 How does this help the recovery of victims?
 How does this impact perpetrators?
 The content of your arguments can then use the
four pillars
Remember!
 There is no universal template
 Which of the four pillars you deploy depends on
the debate, you have to think through which
issues the model is really affecting