assignment

Dixon1

Incarceration versus Rehabilitation

The research paper topic that I chose was Incarceration versus Rehabilitation. This was my chosen topic as I feel that there is a fine line between who should be incarcerated or rehabilitated. The main issues that will be examined are whether or not as a result of criminal behaviors, criminals should be punished for their criminal acts or if they should be rehabilitated instead. The issue with this is that there are some individuals who commit crimes due to their criminal nature and some who do so due to issues that arise from substance abuse, physical and or emotional abuse, and mental illnesses. In the criminal justice system, there are many people who are incarcerated as a form of punishment to answer to the crime(s) that they have committed but, there are always underlined reasons as to why people commit crimes in the first place which should be examined by the criminal justice system to determine the best alternative as not to commit future crimes.

This topic can be related to public policy in terms of which is more cost effective and what actually works in reducing crime and recidivism in the prison system. Policy dictates that if a person commits a crime, then there punishment can and will consist of the many forms of punishment such as; retribution, incapacitation, deterrence, and rehabilitation. Those individuals who are responsible for mandating governmental policies, should be more diligent in finding solutions to the criminality opposed to just incarceration. This topic is related to criminal justice as it deals with punishment in the criminal justice system and or ways to correct the issues of criminal behaviors.