Travel proves a positive challenge
SPENDING A YEAR abroad can be a challenging experience. But under optimal conditions benefits from the experience can range from greater self-esteem and life satisfaction to language fluency and even increased knowledge of one’s own home country.
Short prison sentences a perennial problem
A NEW STUDY OF nearly 100 years of prison data custodial prison sentences finds that they were financially costly and ineffective in Victorian times and remain so today. Studies of prisoners today point to high rates of recidivism for those who have served short prison sentences and the inability of these sentences to reform or rehabilitate offenders. But the failed attempt to make short sentences ‘work’ goes back over 100 years, say researchers Dr Helen Johnston and Professor Barry Godfrey. In this study, researchers examined the efficacy of prison sentences in reducing recidivism, the human costs of imprisonment for individuals, and the financial costs to government of maintaining prisons across nearly a century (1853-1945). Findings show that there was a re- conviction rate of 80 per cent for all Victorian prisoners and that those who received a short sentence for their first sentence had longer criminal careers and committed more offences. Some 65 per cent of offenders who received a short sentence re-offended within five months. Only convicts imprisoned for longer than ten years tended not to re-offend. Examining the offending and prison lives of around 650 prisoners across almost 100 years, the study concludes, as contemporary commentators did at the time, that short sentences were very costly in
financial and human terms and had little if any rehabilitative effect. In the past, as today, short sentences appear to have damaged chances of rehabilitation from the outset. “Our research shows that for over 100 years, the use of custody has cut away connections and support networks in the community”, argues Dr Johnston. “Sentenced offenders lose their residences, their jobs, and sometimes their family relationships as soon as they go through the doors of the prison. Given the legacy of evidence on the use of short sentences, it really is a wonder that anyone has any faith in them as a means of reform at all.” It seems particularly perverse, researchers add, to continue with this ineffective policy in a time of austerity because the cost of imprisoning people for short periods is a significant drain on national resources (over £286 million in 2010 according to the National Audit Office). “The key issue”, Dr Johnston says, “is that prison is doing contradictory things – reforming and rehabilitation as well as a punishment and deterrent – and all at the same time. Prison cannot do all of these things successfully now and, as this study shows, never has.” n
i Contact Dr Helen Johnston, University of Hull
Email
h.johnston@
hull.ac.uk Telephone 01482 465634 ESRC Grant Number RES-062-23-3102
AUTUMN 2013 SOCIETY NOW 7
The evidence that travel broadens the mind comes from a longitudinal study of intercultural exchange students by researchers from the University of Essex. The study followed nearly 2,500 exchange students (average age 17 years) recruited from 46 different countries who spent a year abroad in one of 51 different host destinations. Students were followed for an 18-month period, before, during and after their year abroad. Data was also collected from a control group of 578 non- travelling peers.
Researchers examined key issues connected with living abroad such as the stress associated with being away from home and the ability to adapt to life abroad. Early findings indicate, among other things, that the time abroad had a positive impact. n
i
Contact Dr Nicolas Geeraert, University of Essex Email
geeraert@essex.ac.uk Telephone 01206 873810 ESRC Grant Number RES-062-23-1211
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