Year 11 - Religious education
The treatment of criminals: prison and community service
Religion, crime and punishment
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This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
In this unit pupils will study ideas of crime and how people may view crime is caused. From that, they will examine different ideas of punishing crime and treating criminals focussing especially on a case study of the death penalty and ideas of forgiveness.
Lesson Summary
To understand Christian and other responses to prison and community service as forms of punishment.
Key Notes
- Prison is used for serious crimes and removes a person's freedom.
- Community service is for less serious offences and involves unpaid work to benefit society.
- The Bible teaches values like mercy, forgiveness and visiting those in prison (e.g. Matthew 25:36).
- Denominations have different views on how appropriate prison is compared to community service as a form of punishment.
- Both punishments raise questions about justice, change and the best way to reduce reoffending.
Vocabulary To Learn
- community service: punishment involving the criminal doing a set number of hours of physical labour/work in their local community
- prison: imprisonment is a form of punishment where a criminal is locked in a secure guarded building (prison) for a period of time
- punishment: a penalty given to someone who has broken the law, intended to achieve justice and discourage future wrongdoing
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Prison always helps people change for the better.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain the lesson in two key points.
Prison is used for serious crimes and removes a person's freedom. Community service is for less serious offences and involves unpaid work to benefit society.
2. What does this key word mean in this lesson? 'community service'
punishment involving the criminal doing a set number of hours of physical labour/work in their local community.
3. Correct this common mistake.
Mistake: Prison always helps people change for the better. Correction: Without proper support, prisoners may be more likely to reoffend after release due to negative influences, lack of rehabilitation and poor mental health care.
More Lessons In This Unit
- Different religious views about corporal punishment Study Guide
- Different religious views about forgiveness Study Guide
- Different religious views about the death penalty Study Guide
- Ethical arguments relating to the death penalty Study Guide
- Good and evil intentions Study Guide
- Opposition to an unjust law Study Guide
- Reasons for crime: greed and hate Study Guide
- Reasons for crime: mental illness and addiction Study Guide
- Reasons for crime: poverty and upbringing Study Guide
- The aims of punishment Study Guide
- The concept of forgiveness Study Guide
- The treatment of criminals: corporal punishment Study Guide
- Views about different types of crime Study Guide
- Views about people who commit crime Study Guide
Browse all guides in the Year 11 Religious education guide library.