Punishment and recidivism

Asked about prison and recidivism, candidates write only about high reoffending rates and never say what a prison sentence is. The mark scheme wants both halves: the sentence (custodial, freedom removed, negative punishment) and its effect on reoffending, with a reason — recidivism stays high because punishment suppresses without teaching an alternative.

The documented failure on bullet b: writing that the offender does volunteering. That is not a sentence — a punishment is imposed by a court. Make it read as one: required unpaid work (fixed hours, not chosen), a curfew enforced by a tag, supervision, and breach can send them to prison. The word required does the work: loss of free time and choice are what make it punishing.

Restorative justice and community sentencing are easily swapped; the test: is the victim in the answer? Restorative justice is a supervised meeting where the offender meets the victim, hears the impact and agrees amends. Community service is required unpaid work with no victim. If your sentence could be true with no victim in the room, it is the wrong punishment.

Two command-word failures land here. Identification without justification: "a weakness of prison is that reoffending is high" is a label — add why (punishment suppresses without teaching an alternative) and so what (custody is not doing its job). And improvement is not weakness: an improvement is a change with a reason, such as an employment programme before release.

The assumption that harsher punishment means less reoffending is not supported. Punishment suppresses a behaviour while the consequence is in force; it does not teach a new one. Harshness can make things worse — custody removes job, home and family and adds criminal role models. It is also aimed at the wrong people: high-extraversion offenders are hardest to condition.

Two beliefs make this punishment sound trivial. "It replaces the sentence, so the offender gets off" — in practice it is used alongside a sentence, so the punishment is still served. "It is just saying sorry" — an apology is one outcome, not the process, which is a prepared, supervised meeting where the offender must hear the impact, take responsibility and agree amends.

Naming the sentence in operant terms earns marks, but the labels are the biggest sink. Taking something pleasant away for wrongdoing is punishment (negative punishment), not negative reinforcement — which is performing a behaviour to remove something unpleasant. Prison removes liberty, so negative punishment; positive and negative mean added and removed, not good and bad.

A difference question is not two separate definitions; examiners credit that as an implicit difference worth one mark. The second mark comes from a connective naming the axis: community sentencing punishes the offender in the community with no victim, whereas restorative justice brings the offender face to face with the victim to build empathy.