Can criminals be rehabilitated?
Every hour of every day crimes occur across the world, and every hour of every day criminals are sentenced in our justice system. However when a prisoner is released have they been rehabilitated or are they likely to re-offend? To understand rehabilitation we must understand the crimes. Criminal behavior can be broken down into three broad categories: influence, greed and psychological.
Category - Influence
There are several types of criminal behavior that can be classified as influence. That is any external factor acting on the individual that influences their decision making ability. The three main types of influence are chemical, situational and psychological.
Chemical influences can be any type of drug, alcohol or substance that modifies a persons judgement and perception. The types of crimes committed can be quite varied. Too many alcoholic drinks may make a person more aggressive both physically or sexually. Chemical influences such as drugs can have a more fundamental effect wherein the individual will commit crimes in order to support their habit. Once the influence is removed so is the desire to commit a crime.
Situational influences come from outside sources. This may be as simple as a teens older brother pressuring him into taking a car for a joyride. It may be as complex as the inner city street gangs and the need to survive and conform for your own protection. Another type of situational influence would be someone stealing to make ends meet and feed their family.
Psychological influences have been in the past described as diseases although this strictly speaking is not true. An example would be an accountant who steals from his clients to support his gambling addiction. Kleptomania would also fall under this category.
In the majority of cases removing the influence will remove the desire or need to commit a crime. Chemical and psychological influences are typically treated with counseling, psychiatric help and outreach programs. Situation influences are more complex. Both the individual and the environment need to be changed. There is little point convicting someone for stealing in order to support their family if the same situation exists once they are released.
Category - Greed
Imagine the following scenario: You are in the process of filling out an insurance claim form and have the opportunity to increase the money you receive. If you knew you wouldn't get caught would you do it? The following things may be going through your mind:
- They would never know.
- Even if they found out I could claim it was an honest mistake.
- I've been paying insurance all these years, it's time that I got something out of it.
- They are a large insurance company so it's not really hurting anyone.
It's these types of justifications that someone motivated by greed will typically tell themselves. It may be as simple as a household cleaner pocketing a couple of items or it may be the financial officer of a large bank embezzling money because he didn't get that promotion. These types of crime have typically been called white collar crime as there is no direct confrontation unlike robbing a bank.
Category - Violent Crime
Violent crime encompasses all of the premeditated and violent crimes. Crimes such as murder, rape, serial killings and armed robbery all fall into this category.
Analysis
The majority of prisoners in all three categories can be successfully rehabilitated given the appropriate desire to. Rehabilitation programs that address drug addiction, literacy, education and job training have shown to work in the past. The unfortunate aspect is that there is no immediate payoff. Why would we want to see more money spent on prisoners while our police force and hospitals are understaffed? It is this shortsightedness that has limited the effectiveness of such programs. However if we want to truly address the issue then we as a society need to make that commitment.
It is difficult to see what the future will hold for prisons however that has not stopped the entertainment industry from releasing numerous films depicting future prison life. Here are three such classic films:
In the 1981 film "Escape from New York" Manhattan Island in New York City has been converted into a maximum security prison. Prisoners are sent in and left to fend for themselves.
In the 1994 film "No Escape" (also called "Escape from Absolom") high risk inmates are banished to an island from which there is no escape.
In the 1993 film "Demolition Man" inmates are frozen in a CryoPrison where they are brainwashed with new skills and desires.
At this point both the scenarios in "Escape from New York" and "No Escape" are possible. However the civil rights of prisoners make these options unlikely. This style of imprisonment where we simply abandon our problems in some remote location does not currently reflect the desperation of our society. Crime rates would need to become exponentially worse before the general public and the politicians could conceivably consider this option.
In the end we must come to terms with two important facts:
(1) If a prisoner is going to be released then they must be rehabilitated otherwise there is a high risk they will re-offend.
(2) Prisoners who cannot be rehabilitated should not be released.
Both of these rules are implemented at the moment as the parole board has the final say if a prisoner is released. It may not be the most accurate system, it may not be the most well funded system but it is the one we currently use and it is the one that we want to see work.
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