Crime · Opinion essay · Band 7
Do Longer Prison Sentences Reduce Crime?
The question, a model answer written to the band 7 descriptors, why it scores that band against the 4 official criteria, topic vocabulary, and a common mistake to avoid.
Opinion essay
Some people believe that longer prison sentences are the most effective way to reduce crime, while others think this approach does little to address the root causes of criminal behaviour. To what extent do you agree that longer sentences reduce crime? Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience. Write at least 250 words.
Model answer (band 7)
Written to the band 7 descriptors, not by a real examiner. Read it for structure and language, then write your own in your own words. Examiners can tell a memorised essay from an original one.
I largely disagree that longer prison sentences are the most effective way to reduce crime, since the evidence on deterrence is weaker than commonly assumed, and sentence length rarely addresses why people offend in the first place.
The deterrence argument assumes that potential offenders carefully weigh the length of a possible sentence before committing a crime, yet research consistently shows that most offenders either do not expect to be caught at all or act impulsively without calculating consequences in advance, making sentence length largely irrelevant to their initial decision. Countries with notably severe sentencing, such as the United States, have not achieved correspondingly lower crime rates than comparable countries with far shorter average sentences, suggesting that certainty of being caught matters considerably more than the eventual severity of punishment.
Moreover, longer sentences carry their own costs that can increase rather than decrease future offending. Extended time in prison frequently weakens family ties, employment prospects, and housing stability, all factors strongly associated with reoffending after release, and prolonged exposure to a prison environment can also normalise criminal networks and behaviour rather than discouraging it. This suggests that excessively long sentences may, paradoxically, make someone more likely to reoffend once released, not less.
I believe resources are better directed toward addressing root causes, such as poverty, inadequate education, and substance addiction, alongside rehabilitation programmes during incarceration that build genuine employability, since these factors influence the decision to offend far more directly than sentence length ever could.
In conclusion, while punishment has a necessary role, treating sentence length as the primary lever for reducing crime overstates its effectiveness and diverts attention from more impactful interventions.
Why this answer scores band 7
Mapped to the 4 official IELTS Writing criteria.
- Task Response: disagrees with clear qualification and supports the position with specific reasoning (certainty vs severity, reoffending factors) rather than assertion alone.
- Coherence and Cohesion: logical progression from deterrence theory, to its costs, to an alternative policy focus, each clearly and cohesively connected.
- Lexical Resource: precise criminological vocabulary ('reoffending', 'certainty of punishment', 'rehabilitation programme') used accurately throughout.
- Grammatical Range and Accuracy: complex sentence structures, including comparative and causal clauses, used with consistent accuracy.
Useful vocabulary & collocations
Phrases used in the model answer that lift Lexical Resource naturally.
Common mistake on this type of question
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