All crime would be solved by longer prison
sentences. Evaluate the arguments for and
against
It is difficult to prevent crime, as there are often many different reasons why a
crime is committed. There are many punishments that are used for crime,
including prison sentencing and the length of prisons sentences is often decided
based on the severity of the crime committed. However, many people go on to
reoffend after receiving short prison sentences, so would introducing longer
prison sentences help solve all crime?
There are many reasons why introducing longer prison sentences would help
solve all crime, one of the reasons is it would be in a way �removing� crime
from society and away from potential victims, because if you're in prison, you
can't commit crime (unless it�s against their fellow prisoners), therefore having
criminals in prison must reduce the number of committed crimes and the longer
they are in prison the longer they can�t commit crimes for.
Another reason why introducing longer prison sentences would help solve all crime
is, because it helps reform criminals, teaching them many skills, which will hopefully
help them when they are released from prison and help them prevent committing
further crimes. It also helps reform them through rehabilitation and giving them the
change to receive an education and gain qualifications.
However all crime won�t be solved by longer prison sentences, because prison
might actually lead to criminals reoffending when they are released from prison,
because being around other criminals everyday might cause them to become
socialized by other criminals into committing more crimes and will have the
opportunity to plan crimes with other criminals and could even join a gang in
prison, so in the future their criminal activities are �planned out�. Also, because
criminals are surrounded by others, they might feel pressured into committing
crimes when they�re released.
Also, all crime won’t be solved by longer prison sentences, because not all crimes
deserve prison and there are a number of alternative punishments that will help
solve crime, such as fines, community service, probation and ASBOs. These sorts
of punishments are given for less severe crimes, which don�t deserve prison such
as parking offences and antisocial behaviour
and giving long prison sentences all crimes would probably make criminals angry and
maybe even go on and commit more crime, because they know that they don�t
deserve a prison sentence.
Longer prison sentences will also not solve all crime, because not all criminals are caught in
the first place. Crime that goes unreported or undiscovered is called the dark figure of crime
or either the iceberg approach, as there is a percentage of crime that is reported, while
there is a percentage of crime hidden �under the water�. One of the reasons is the
chivalry factor, this is when women or let off or given lighter sentences when they commit
crimes based in things such as their looks, so they won�t be sent to prison in the first place.
So longer prison sentences might help solve the crime that has been discovered, but it
won�t help solve crime that�s been unreported.
Overall I think that longer prison sentences will help some crime, because prison can help
reform criminals and the longer they spend in prison, the longer they have to reform
before they are released back into society, however but I don�t think it will solve all crime,
because firstly being around other criminals can have a bad affect, as criminals can be
socialized to commit more crime in prison and it won�t solve all crime, because of a lot of
crime goes unreported, so many criminals can commit crimes without being caught.