Criminology

Although incarceration is formal, excessive incarceration can affect the social organisation of a community. The actual purpose of formal incarceration is to reduce crimes in the community by removing the criminals from the community. However, high incarceration rates make the community too develop a negative feeling towards the justice system. (Bernard et al. 2010). Moreover, despite the fact that incarceration deters crimes, crimes can also increase as a result of excessive incarceration. My opinion in this paper is that the higher the incarceration rate in a community, the higher the crime rates.

Based on various research and studies, it is truth that high incarceration rate has generally reduced the number of crimes in the community. However, at certain density, the rate is likely to reach a point where very many people from the community will be detained thus destabilizing the community. In such a situation, the incarceration fuels community crimes. High incarceration rate transforms the role of a prison from deterring crimes to fuelling cycles of  disorders and crimes as it breaks up families, worsens the communitys attitude towards the criminal justice system and  it leaves the community with too many people with  prison experience. Actually, many people are limited from committing crimes by the fear of prison experience. Therefore, individuals who have been incarcerated are hardened by the experience thus does not fear to commit a crime.

High incarceration rates concentrate criminals in a compact community.  In such situations, the criminals are likely to acquire more vices and criminal behaviour as they interact with other criminal. The offenders are likely to commit more of the same crime or other crimes. Incarcerating offenders at a very high rate does not give the community a solution to crimes rather it fuels the crimes in the community.