Incapacitation Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Incapacitation - Term Paper Example In the cases that the criminal is not conditioned, by remaining in prison they remain unable to commit further crimes. Collective incapacitation is the implementation of crime-control effects of the present criminal justice system due to incapacitation. Collective incapacitation attempts to prevent crime by increasing the rate and length of time that a broad range of offenders spend in prison. This is done without taking into consideration possible future offenses. Selective incapacitation is an altered form of incapacitation that justifies the practice of giving more dangerous and indefatigable offenders long prison sentences, some of which can be indefinite or extend over numerous life terms. Selective incapacitation focuses more on criminals who are more likely to repeat their offenses in the future or else engage in more dangerous activity upon being released from their initial prison sentence (Auerhahn, 2003). Selective incapacitation is sometimes used on people who are less likely to commit further offenses, ensuring that their one sentence is going to be enough to rehabilitate them. Though collective and selective incapacitation both deal with the implementation of prison time to enable criminal offenders to avoid future offenses, there are differences between the two concepts. The greatest difference between collective and selective incapacitation is the purpose. Collective incapacitation is used for criminal defenders as a whole, though focuses especially on offenders that are not believed to commit further offenses in the future. Selective incapacitation is more picky, focusing on criminals that are at risk for being repeat offenders, or criminals that have no chance at repeating their mistakes after being imprisoned. The effect of incapacitation varies from criminal to criminal (Hawkins & Zimring, 1997). The majority of criminals that