Attitudes to punishment : the attitudes of Maltese youth towards punishment and community corrections

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the ATTITUDES of Maltese YOUTH towards PUNISHMENT and COMMUNITY CORRECTIONS. The aims of the research study were achieved by gathering data by a questionnaire from a number of respondents aged between 18 and 35. The hypothesis revolved around determining if youth have a tough or soft approach towards punishment and to elicit what attitude they prefer between retributive or restorative justice methods. After the statistical analysis it was found that even though punishment in the form of imprisonment is still the most famous response yet attitudes are not as harsh as it is thought It emerged that community penalties are gathering more acceptance than they did in the past but to gather more response they need to deliver more than they did previously in terms of penal credibility. Ultimately it was shown that the problem to find one common pattern of attitudes and how to respond to them still prevails. Hence the way forward emerged to be more public information campaigns to increase familiarity not only with the community corrections systems but with the Malta criminal justice system in general.