Hampson Hannah s5110923 Short Answer 3 PDF

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ASSESSMENT 3: SHORT ANSWER RESPONSES 1013CCJ: Introduction to Criminology and Criminal Justice Griffith University Student name: Hannah Hampson Student number: s5110923 Tutor name: Carley Ruiz Course mode: Instructions: Respond to TWO of the following short answer questions. Type or paste your responses into the spaces provided. Refer to the assessment instructions on Learning@Griffith for further guidance.

Module 9 Short-Answer (Policing and Crime Prevention): Many law enforcement agencies use predictive policing to inform staffing levels and patrol allocations. Some of these efforts have been successful, but they have also stirred up controversy. What are the prospects and pitfalls of using this kind of approach in policing? (250 words, +/- 10%) Predictive policing is the application of analytical techniques (for example: quantitative techniques) that is used by police to identify potential targets for intervention, is used to prevent current and future crimes from being committed and potentially used to solve past crimes by making calculations.

The prospects of predictive policing include the following: Firstly, policing resources can be deployed more accurately to locations that need it the most as well as timing the deployment as well. This can be achieved using historic crime data and a wider range of data as well. Secondly, predictive policing would be able to identify individuals that have the potential to be involved in crime. Predictive policing techniques can be used to identify members of well-known criminal groups and organisations that have a higher chance of having a “violent outburst” between them.

However, with the prospects of predictive policing comes the pitfalls of it as well. The first pitfall of predictive policing is that these types of predictive models are data driven. This means that there is too much data to be processed. Another pitfall of predictive policing is that accountability problems may arise. Said accountability issues would arise due to the lack of understanding of predictive software. Third and finally, the potential of branding of both individuals and groups can be labelled as a form of discrimination based on the prediction algorithms that the police use.

Module 10 Short-Answer (Courts and Restorative Justice): The use of victim impact statements has produced a fiery debate among scholars and justice officials: advocates argue that the process provides important benefits for primary victims and the broader community, while critics suggest that the process introduces biases that can substantially disadvantage the offender. Weighing up these pros and cons, do you think Australian courts should use victim impact statements? Contextualize and justify your response. (250 words, +/- 10%)

Module 11 Short-Answer (Corrections): The use of imprisonment is costly and produces many ill-effects for offenders, leading to the principle that it should be used as a last resort and be reserved for the most serious offenders. Advances in risk assessment tools have introduced the hope of selective incapacitation, with proponents suggesting that we could use prison only for those offenders that are predicted to reoffend. What are the benefits and drawbacks of this approach? Should future risk be a sentencing consideration? Explain your answer. (250 words, +/- 10%) Selective incapacitation is what is known as a corrections strategy that is and or can be used to protect society by incarcerating those offenders who seem to pose the greatest threat to society. An example of ‘greatest threat to society’ would be a sexual offenders such as Robert Fardon. This is why Queensland introduced the Dangerous Prisoners (Sexual Offenders) Act 2003 (also known as the DPSOA).

Benefits of selective incapacitation include: a severe decrease in crime being committed. The local community will feel extremely safe knowing that a threat to society is not free to roam around the streets, giving them a sense of confidence in the justice system. Selective incapacitation is the most cost-effective method of incapacitation where the allocation of prison resources is more selective.

Drawbacks of selective incapacitation include the incapacitation being based on the statistical prediction of dangerousness. Sentencing according to the risk of the offender reoffending is said to violate fundamental legal principles by allocating punishment based on future behaviour. Selective incapacitation is also said to undermine proportionality throughout the sentencing phase. Finally, the risk of said selective incapacitation being applied unreasonably to a variety of different individuals and social groups.

The future risk of an offender reoffending in crime should definitely be taken into consideration when sentencing is being determined by the judge. It could be classed as a way of saving money in the future due to not having to go through appeals and risk assessments....