Justice Model in America and Britain - Development and Analysis (From Coming Penal Crisis - A Criminological and Theological Exploration, P 25-52, 1980, A E Bottoms and Ronald H Preston, ed. - See NCJ-73802)

• NCJ Number: 73803
• Author(s): A K Bottomley
• Date Published: 1980
• Length: 28 pages
• Sale Source: Scottish Academic Press Ltd
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

This paper proposes to replace the rehabilitative ideal for the treatment of offenders with the justice model. The development and origins of the justice model in the United States and its influence on British criminology are outlined.

Abstract

The rehabilitative model is based on the view that rehabilitation of criminals is the primary goal of imprisonment and has resulted in indeterminate sentencing and parole which lend itself to abuse. The failure of this ideal is illustrated by rising crime rates, overcrowed prisons, and by such events as the uprising at New York's Attica prison in 1976 and the Hull riot in Great Britain in the same year. These facts have led to the development in the United States of the justice model, which is based on the assumption that the primary objective of sentencing is to mete out 'just' punishment for the committed crime. Other considerations such as rehabilitation and deterrence are of secondary concern in this model. The justice model brings back the sentencing procedure based on due process of law, eliminates many abuses, results in shorter sentences, and leaves the option of taking advantage of the rehabilitative facilities and opportunities up to prisoners themselves. This model is being adopted in the United States and should be adopted in Great Britain as well. The background of the rehabilitative and justice models and a review of the relevant literature in the United States and Great Britain are included.