The United States has been fond of using severe penalties and longer prison sentences as one way of deterring crime in society. Use of harsh penalties including capital punishment has been a norm, though it remains a controversial topic especially based on concerns over its effectiveness. The criminal justice system emphasizes using harsh punishment in deterring crime with the hope of scaring potential criminals from committing a similar crime. However, while experts have been airing their opinions on the use of harsh punishment, the public views and attitude over the same are yet to be determined ( Wood & Viki, 2001) . This research will seek to understand public opinion regarding the use of severe penalties to deter crime in the society. Cruel punishment in this study will not entirely mean a death sentence. Instead, it will comprise long prison sentences among other methods of deterring crime.
Problem Statement
The study looks to establish the relationship between harsh penalties and deterrence of crime in the society and what the public thinks. The objective of this study is to evaluate the deterrence effect of severe punishment on offense. The research will also seek to understand the public’s attitude towards the use of harsh penalties to deter crime in the society ( Wood & Viki, 2001) . Deterrence often involves reducing or preventing criminal acts in the future by teaching criminals about the effects of committing an offense. Harsh punishment has become common in the United States as a means of deterrence, which has also seen increased incarceration rate. Courts are handing longer prison sentences to offenders with an assumption that it will make communities safe and change the criminal behavior of individuals.
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Hypothesis
This study considers the hypothesis that using harsh penalties will not contribute to lowering the rate of crime in a region. In this case, the dependent variable is the crime rate or an area while the independent variable is the use of harsh punishment.
Literature review
The topic of severe penalties and crime is controversial, and many scholars have written on the subject, either supporting or opposing the theory of deterrence. Donald Ritchie (2011) wrote a journal asking whether imprisonment deters crime. This was a research review comprising of evidence investigating the relationship between the length of incarceration and the crime rates in the society and whether it reduces the criminal behavior of the offender. The scope of this research focused on examining the purpose of deterrence and how long imprisonment sentences can help achieve it through incapacitation. The author used the evidence-based approach in the study, concluding that there is little evidence to show the relationship between harsh sentences and lower crime rate in the society. It also explained that increasing the severity of punitive measures through longer imprisonment sentences rarely creates a deterrent impact in the offenders.
Another study was done by Cullen, Jonson, and Nagin (2011) to measure whether prisons reduce recidivism among criminal offenders. The authors conducted an evidence-based approach where they concluded that harsh punishments do not reduce recidivism, though it may have some criminogenic effect. As such, the authors found out that longer prison sentences have unanticipated consequences on the safety of the society.
Methodology
This will be a qualitative research paper seeking to find the opinion of experts and the general public on the use of harsh punishment to deter crime. A cross-section study will be conducted in society by interviewing several individuals and experts in the area to determine whether harsh penalties can help in reducing crime. The study will be performed within the university premise and neighborhood since it will be easy to get the respondents and explain the purpose of the study. The primary sample of the research will be the general public in the area within the university and around the institution, as well as from law enforcement officers and experts in the field of crime and punishment.
The method of data extraction will involve pre-structured and validated questionnaires to the sample population. It focuses on covering a wide range of issues using a highly structured questionnaire administered to respondents. Some of the questions will include whether they believe in using harsh punishment to deter crime, whether the method reduces the crime rate in the area as well as their opinion on an alternative to reduce crime. However, respondents will not be provided with a ‘don’t know; option in responding to the questions, instead encouraging them to give the best guess. The questionnaire will contain both open-ended and close-ended questions allowing respondents the freedom to answer and give their opinions.
The research will also involve conducting interviews with the civilians as well as experts in the law enforcement field. The interviews will follow qualitative interviewing skills structured by open-ended questions. Getting a suitable answer from civilians regarding their input on using capital punishment requires a lot of creativity due to the controversies surrounding the topic. Participants for the interview will come from random places including the university environment. After getting their attention and permission to conduct the interview, they will sit down for answering the questions using questions similar to the questionnaire. The discussions will provide a more accurate response to the issue and get the first-hand expression from the participants. Use of face to face interviews will be employed in this research targeting about 500 adult respondents who have an idea of capital punishment in the country. They will be conducted by trained interviewers and record their response that will be analyzed later.
Apart from interviews, surveys will also be conducted involving the general public and members of the society, asking them about the input in the issue. Random participants will be selected and asked what they think about using harsh penalties to deter crime in the area. The surveys will be administered using technology and get to the people through their email addresses. The online cross-sectional study will involve standardized questions for respondents regarding their opinion on harsh penalties. They will be required to respond to the questions while on their devices, which reduces any chance of inconveniences. At the same time, more data will be obtained from the media and the internet. Data on crime rates will be taken from the Disaster Center’s website that documents the rate of crime in an area to determine whether it has been increasing or reducing with the use of harsh punishments
The interviews will also be conducted with law enforcement officers and other experts in the area of crime and punishment to provide balance to the opinions from the general public. Law enforcement officers are better placed to offer a validated opinion regarding the topic. At the same time, the research will seek to get former criminals who were faced with harsh punishments such as longer prison sentences. They will be interviewed on whether the longer prison sentence changed their stance on crime and whether it helped deter crime,
Limitation
The survey method will be a limitation for this research since it will concentrate on a small sample to obtain a broad national picture of the public’s attitude towards the use of harsh punishments in deterring crime. While the sample population will provide precise control of the research design, it may not allow obtaining information in depth. Due to the small sample population, the validity of the sample may be a limitation.
Another limitation will entail difficulties to get volunteer informants and experts who can provide useful information about the detail. Public opinion on issues such as crime and punishment is often a dynamic issue. In most cases, the response will be subject to several factors such as long-term shifts and seismic changes due to different events. In this result, it will be crucial to get informed respondents who can provide objective responses to the questions.
Interacting with the population can be another limitation to this study, especially since it involves associating with numerous law enforcement officers and former criminals. For example, since the study will involve interviewing former criminals who have served longer sentences, it might be difficult to find such responders based on the sample population area. The challenge will be to get at least one reformed criminal for the study. Furthermore, it will be difficult to get former criminals and ask them about their position on the use of harsh punishments to deter crime.
Resources
This research will need several resources that include funding to facilitate the conducting of interviews and questionnaires. A computer will also be required to do online research, send online surveys as well as help in the analysis of data. In essence, computer software will be needed to help in recording data an analyzing before writing a report. Data from the study will be analyzed and tallied to find the percentage of those who support the use of harsh punishment to deter crime and those who oppose.
Ethical implications
The research will need to protect the privacy of informants by guaranteeing absolute anonymity upon their request. The researcher will also agree not to use pictures of the sources and respect their right to privacy whenever requested. Another ethical implication is to seek permission before conducting interviews with participants. Every participant in research including interviews, questionnaires and online surveys will only be involved once they give their consent to be part of the study.
At the same time, the research will seek to minimize any bias on the part of the researcher and participants through the wording of questions as well as the selection of sample size. The questionnaires will not be worded in a way to guide the respondent to answer in a particular direction. Instead, it will allow responders the freedom to give their opinions about the issue. The interviews will also be conducted by trained researchers seeking to avoid any bias and the order of questions will be determined to elicit the appropriate response. On the other hand, random sampling will be used in selecting the respondents to avoid creating any bias in the answers.
References
Cullen, F. T., Jonson, C. L., & Nagin, D. S. (2011). Prisons do not reduce recidivism: The high cost of ignoring science. The Prison Journal , 91 (3_suppl), 48S-65S.
Ritchie, D. (2011). Sentencing matters-Does imprisonment deter. A review of the evidence. Melbourne: Sentencing Advisory Council .
Wood, J. L., & Viki, G. T. (2001). Public attitudes to crime and punishment: A review of the research. Kent Academic Repository .
