Write a 8 pages paper on the effectiveness of punishment in improving desistance. Karl Marx (1956) insisted crime and the criminals are essential for society because they build criminal justice law and keep the bourgeois society active in protecting their work. According to them, criminals are the equilibrium force of society. Research has been rampant on improving the lives of these criminals and making them lead a fruitful and normal life. Such research is vital at the humanitarian level as every crime is influenced by a certain aspect of society. Also, it is the victims and taxpayers who bear the cost of the offender’s crime and nurturing them in prison. Helping criminals lead a normal life is a measure of indirectly sculpting society to a more secure place. The State tries to do the same through threats, punishments and probation. This essay explores in detail about the effectiveness of such punishments and enhancements of prison sentences in increasing desistance among criminals.

Even after much research, it is still an enigma whether a person succumbs to desistance because of the fear of punishment or by their free will to transform into respectable citizens of the society. The influence of family members and the natural supporters in the community serve as a great boost for the offenders to mend their ways. Desistance is the ability to transform oneself from the status of a criminal into a legitimate citizen. The mentality to resist authority changes with time and the person reaches a state of desistance because of punishments, change of mentality and various other reasons.

Custodial punishment refers to the imprisonment of the convicted person. A person is sent to prison when the court feels the general public needs to be protected from the offender’s dangerous attitude. Section 152(2) of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 states custodial sentences are granted when the crime is “so serious that neither a fine alone nor a community sentence can be justified for the offence.” Determinate sentences, life sentences and extended sentences are the most common type of custodial punishments though there are other categories.