What Leads Criminals to Re-offend After a Prison Sentence - Research Proposal Example

Research Question What leads criminals to re offend after a prison sentence? Introduction The Criminal Justice System ensures people are not only punished and contained but to see to it that the amount of criminal activity in the society reduces significantly. There are people that may seem to disagree with this by stating that in order for criminal activity in the society to reduce, the best thing to do is imprison these offenders for a very long time. When these people leave the prison, there is a high possibility of them going back there again and very many issues cause this. Literature Review According to the Pennsylvania State records, one of the issues that make these prisoners get back to prison is the high rate of illiteracy shown by these people. The prison system that the country uses today and in the 20th century is the same. In the 20th century, the prisons experienced major reforms in terms of the structure and the staffing. However, one major aspect that the system did not accommodate was the technological characteristic. Technology in major institutions is one very important characteristic as in the 21st century; most of the education relayed to students is through technology. For example, calculators have come in as a great deal to serve the contemporary students with faster ways of calculating in fields such as chemistry, physics, and mathematics. If these people had gained the knowledge, they would not go back to society to commit the crimes but would rather make something worth. The economic condition in the outside world is one other factor linked to the high amount of repeat offenders in the prisons. In the contemporary times, the rates of recession have been steadily on the rise and thus making people engage in activities that will serve to help them gain a meal for the day. The economic factors extend so far such as even professionals such as doctors engage in activities that do not fit their job description. An example of this is a doctor who may go way out of his career path to sell prescription drugs to addicts in an effort to make the extra cash. According to Malthouse who is a well known author on the issue, these conditions affect the professionalism of people and when they stray to carry out activities that do not suit them, the resulting factor is the lack of essence to the career that a person has (Malthouse and Roffey-Barentson, 2010). With the lack of essence, it is common to find the person forfeiting his job and concentrating on the illegal side job as a whole. Through this, the person may lose certain concepts taught in the professional school attended due to lack of practice and this would eventually render a former professional a criminal. In the connection to the prison system, the person is sent to prison and since these professionals make a lot of money from the side businesses, they end up going back to prison again hence the high number of repeat prisoners in the facilities. Other factors that lead to illiteracy in prison are political factors. In the community, the high rate of unemployment leads to people suffering and searching for means to gain income. One of the most common times that people engage in these activities is during political campaigns. Political campaigns are a very noticeable aspect of the community and politicians often go ahead to look for people to spread their popularity in various regions with the promise of a certain amount of fund. Many of the politicians do not pay the campaigners until the campaign is over and the results announced. This one factor motivates campaigners to work very hard in an effort to please the party candidate. Many are the times that stiff rivalry may arise from another group with the same ambition. Times occur when violence becomes a major aspect of these campaigns when the two teams meet. This is due to the amount of charisma and determination that each team portrays trying to show that the ideology that their political leader bears is the most effective. Fights break out in various rallies and this leads to the arrest of the perpetrators. After alignment in court, they are sent to prison in the count of violence and in critical conditions even murder charges (Newburn, 2009). As mentioned, most of the people at these rallies are uneducated and often out just in search for a means to get money. When put in prison, they increase the number of people incarcerated leading to people being released early. When these people are released, they are not fully reformed and thus For money that trickles down to the prison system, the manner through which it is applied to use is not very appealing. Many of the prison guards and caterers often complain of the poor terms of work and the inadequate payments that they receive. However, the government shows little or no effort towards the resolution of this calamity. Upon noticing the ignorant government, prison officials decide to use the funds to their own advantage. Money meant to develop the prison facilities in such a manner that teaching programs are introduced ends up benefitting the guards in manners such as the development of new offices and cafeteria for them. Some of the high officers in the prison offices go as far as putting the money into family use. The analysis is one of the major aspects that show that illiteracy in prisons is not a coincidence but a consequence of corrupt officials (Jupp, 2006). These corrupt officials are so corrupt that they mishandle the prisoners and some of them get the mentality of the prison system such that they do not even intend to leave and when they leave they continue with their character. Social factors play a major role in the analysis of the issue of repeat criminals in the prison systems. One of the major social factors is family issues. There are very many families especially those that dwell with the Latin American principles that do not go to school. This is from the fact that they take their customs rather seriously and do not engage with the civilized world. These people do not carry out activities that civilized people do such as going to work to earn a sustainable amount of income (Bryman, 2012). Rather than this, they dwell in their homes waiting for the one member of the family who caters for all their needs, the father, to take care of them and despite of their being sent to prison they end up carrying out the crimes again It is important to note that in the contemporary world, young people have developed the desire to please their peers and fit in through the purchase of fashionable clothes and such commodities. When the customs of the Latinos tie them down to a point that they cannot buy these commodities, the peer groups engage in activities such as crime in an effort to gain the money to purchase the commodities. At the time when these people are apprehended, they do not have any education but only have the survival tactics in them. These tactics come in handy when in prison but the fact that they went to prison remains. These kids are known to receive light sentences that in turn lead them to committing the crimes again and being sent to jail. Poverty is another social factor that reveals that coincidence is not a factor in the levels of repeat criminals in prisons. Most of the prisoners in state penitentiaries are there from the committing of different societal crimes from the small ones of theft to massive ones of murder. Many of the people out in the streets have the urge to live a better life and the only through which they can attain this standard life is by education. However, the money to attain quality education is often problematic to find and they end up living pauper lives and keep being sent to prison. The reason as to why they do this is the fact that they bear the conscience of wrath for the elite in society and find them rather boastful of their accomplishments. Very few people in the prisons are educated prior to imprisonment and their survival instincts on the outside assist them on the inside and upon identifying the few learned in prison and the manner in which they find it hard to adjust to the environment, they gain a rather strong appeal against education. This subsequently leads to the embedded notion in the prisoners’ mind that education is not effective as it attributes one to various characteristics that do not assist in tough situations. Various prisoners have the characteristic of naturally refusing help in prison facilities because they feel as if they are being subdued. . Many prisoners have the characteristic of independence with nobody offering instructions on what to do. The help policy in these prisons ensures that they learn by means of lectures and practical activities under supervision (Lesley and Emma 2004). This notion of supervision reveals the resistance characteristic of prisoners who are not always willing to carry out activities under instructions and this in turn increases the levels of crime in the system. The explanation reveals that it is of no coincidence that there is a high number of repeat people in the prison services as when they live they continue dealing with crime but that the issue is also self induced by the resentful prisoners. Research Methodology In an effort to gain quality work and information, it is important to show some diversification in the research methods used. In some situations, one is confined to only one research method, however, of independent and open studies such as this one, it is important to use different styles and consequently the information got is of the best quality. This is because each method touches on different areas of the study and this leads to a wider field of study touched. Measuring and scaling was made by simply calculating the percentages of data received from the different cultures and then tabulating it to understand how much each culture was affected by imprisoning. The questionnaires also came in rather resourceful from the manner in which they got people thinking before they answered it. The initial physical impression made by the person before answering the question revealed the answer that the person had in mind and even though they cheated, I was able to know their thoughts. In understanding the sampling process, it is important to put into mind that this is a rather very important aspect of the methodology. In an effort to determine the population, I put into consideration that the contemporary environment that is civilized acts in a complete different manner from the older generation that had its culture completely different from the way of life today. Having this in mind, I was able to separate the two and put them as two distinct cultures and therefore defining the population. Determining the sample frame was arrived at by calculating the percentage of people per culture interviewed and adding it to the percentage number of websites visited that had information regarding each culture. After this, percentages of each culture would be added and the average got consequently determining the general percentage. Determining this sample technique was arrived at after reviewing and finding out that the major sources of information was less than five and thus the averaging method was the most appropriate and as stated earlier, the sample size was arrived out by mean of manual counting. The data analysis was carried out through a series of steps, the first step involved identification of the quality of data to comprehend whether it was worthy that according to this study was. There was also understanding of the quality of measurements taken which was done through confirmatory factor analysis that showed the accuracy of the measuring tools incorporated. The tools in this study were very helpful from the fact they incorporated questionnaires that have high positive acclamation in the field of research. Another step is self-analysis where one is required to state whether the data was resourceful which in this study was very resourceful and insightful to me. Research Timetable The amount of time taken to carry out the research was 10 months. The first three months involved carrying out research in physical areas such as prisons and other communities. The second set of moths involved visiting various professionals to try determining the manner through which they got their data. The other months involved carrying out basic secondary research that involved going through books and internet resources. Bibliography Bryman, A. (2012). Social Research Methods. (4th Ed). OUP: Oxford. Jupp, V. (2006) The SAGE Dictionary of Social Research Methods. London: SAGE. Lesley Noaks and Emma Wincup (2004) Criminological Research. Understanding Qualitative Methods, London: Sage. Malthouse and Roffey-Barentson (2010) Study Skills for Policing Students, Exeter: Learning Matters Newburn, T. (ed.) (2009). Key Readings In Criminology. Cullompton: Willan. Read More