Rehabilitation should be the major constituent of incarceration since it would help prevent recidivism. Most times, especially with sex offenders, the chances of reoffending tend to be high. According to Bartol & Bartol (2017), recidivism in criminals, and specifically, sex offenders, is likely because most rapists tend to expand their crime range, hence, increasing the number of crimes. For instance, most rapists will also use physical violence against their victims or have had a history of violent behavior long before the rape crimes. Therefore, rehabilitating these criminals is important in reducing recidivism because once released from prison, the offender may participate in other crimes, even when the crimes are about sexual violence or assault.
Another reason why rehabilitation ought to be a chief element of incarceration is to stop criminals' crime patterns. Sometimes, criminal behavior is triggered by childhood events or trauma that warps one’s mindsets and, ultimately, their behavior. For instance, a man taking in for domestic violence could have PTSD to see his parents fighting as a child, which normalizes domestic violence for him. Incarcerating such an offender would be fruitless without rehabilitation. Criminals need to change their mindset and perspectives about crime and life in general, to avoid reoffending and recidivism. Additionally, criminal activities are explicable using psychological theories that provide reasons for and development of how people develop certain criminal mindsets. For instance, if a criminal became one because of the labeling theory, his incarceration should include rehabilitation through psychotherapy to help him or her overcome the mindset that he or she is a criminal, which ultimately defeats recidivism. Based on these reasons, rehabilitation should comprise most of the incarceration.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
References
Bartol, C., & Bartol, A. (2017). Criminal Behavior a Psychological Approach . Pearson.
