Ruth’s Sociology Resources Blog

This is a link to a BBC News “In Depth” collection of articles on prisons in the UK. Some of the articles are fairly trivial whereas others provide interesting insight into life inside UK prisons and some of the policy ideas around prisons that are being discussed.

It raises questions of crime, deviance and punishment - what they are and what the best ways are of dealing with them. Some of the comments and ideas concur with Durkheim’s idea that the punishment of crime is a powerful deterrent - in many ways this can be linked to New Right views of crime and punishment. Others point much more to Merton’s strain theory or to subcultural theories about the reasons for crime.

The article “Facing Up” talks about some people’s experiences of “restorative justice” (sometimes known as “reintegrative shaming”) where offenders are brought face-to-face with victims in an effort to get offenders to realise the often far-reaching consequences and human faces of their offences. There is evidence from several studies that similar and community based programmes can be effective in preventing reoffending see the summary produced by the Restorative Justice  Consortium.

There is also some interesting data on prison populations in the UK and around the world.

BBC NEWS | In Depth | Prisons