Exploring the perception of young people on the alternatives to imprisonment

Abstract

Alternatives to imprisonment can be awarded as punishments to offenders as community sanctions sparing offenders from a life behind bars. The focus of this dissertation is on the views of young people aged between 18 to 24 years on other punishments which are not imprisonment. Mainly, the aim of this research is to explore for which types of criminal offences, offenders and age groups should be given the alternatives and which type of order is deemed to be suitable. A quantitative approach was employed to collect the data through an online questionnaire which was posted by Agenzija Zghazagh and sent via email to University of Malta students. In total 100 participants completed the questionnaire. SPSS was utilised so as to evaluate the data and present it in figures and tables. Findings show that young people support and have a positive view on the alternatives as they agreed that they are more effective and reduce recidivism rates more than a sentence to prison. Moreover, they also claimed that the alternatives aid in the rehabilitation of offenders. The results also reveal that overall they perceive them as suitable for minor non violent offences such as petty theft, shoplifting and public disturbance. Additionally, participants agreed that when it comes to the age group anyone should receive it and for the type of offenders they mostly believe should be imposed on first time and repeated offenders.