Does the threat of prison serve as a deterrent Discuss with reference Essay

Does the threat of prison serve as a deterrent Discuss with reference to the work of at least two academic theorists - Essay Example Across the societies and in all nations, a prison system has been set and mandated with primary responsibility and authority of punishing these criminal offenders who have been found guilty by court. To deter is to use punishment as way of averting criminal acts. A prison is a setting where criminal offenders are contained legally as way of punishment for the crimes they have committed (Perrier and Pink, 2003:58). The question that, therefore, rises is if prisons actually serve to deter crime from happening. This essay will discuss the extent and ways in which prisons function in their attempt to reduce and deter crime and demonstrate if actually this objective is achieved. This will be based and compared to the theoretical perspectives of prison and role in crime deterrence. It is of great concern to anyone who has interest in crime prevention to critically analyse the role of prison system in curbing crime through preventing a reoccurrence and initiation of a new one. There has been a massive transformation in the recent time in the prison departments with different people expressing divergent opinions concerning the main role of a prison. Some people would argue that the prison should be a rehabilitation centre with structures and facilities that are suppose to empower the offenders and show them a new perspective in life. Other people from a different school of thought would say that availing positive and empowerment tools to offenders would be reinforcing criminal acts and, therefore, no one would learn from the mistakes. Punishment is the best way to unlearn behaviour rather that exposing a criminal to positive and enabling conditions. While it appears to be a motivation and reinforcement of a criminal behaviour, a holistic rehabilitative measure have been put in most prisons to make sure that prisoners come out of their dens afresh with clearly set goals and ambition so as to make a change in the society. This has