IELTS Crime Essay: A Full Task 2 Answer on Prison and Rehabilitation

Crime is one of the themes that comes back again and again in IELTS Writing Task 2. Most candidates have learned the words: deterrent, rehabilitation, reoffend. Very few have two ideas they can explain for 90 words each, which is what the task actually requires.

This post works through one crime question from the blank page to a finished answer, and then explains what each paragraph is doing and why.

The question

This is a practice question written in the standard IELTS style. It is not a question taken from a real test paper.

Some people believe that the main purpose of prison should be to punish people who commit crimes. Others argue that prisons should concentrate on preparing offenders to return to society. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

Two things are being asked. Discuss both views means both sides get real space, not one line of dismissal. Give your own opinion means your position must be clear, and it must stay the same from the introduction to the conclusion.

Why crime questions go wrong

Two failures account for most of the lost marks on this theme.

The moral assertion. The candidate writes that criminals deserve punishment because crime is wrong, and then has nothing further to say. This reads as one sentence repeated three times. Task Response, the criterion that marks whether you answered the question, looks for ideas that are extended and supported, so an assertion with no mechanism behind it scores low however strongly it is phrased.

The vocabulary display. The candidate has memorised a list of crime words and inserts them wherever they fit the grammar. "Prisons should deter the rehabilitation of heinous recidivists" contains four impressive words and no meaning. Lexical Resource marks whether vocabulary is used accurately and appropriately, not whether it is rare.

The fix for both is the same. Before writing, decide what the mechanism is. Why would punishment reduce crime? Why would training reduce crime? Write the answer to that, and the vocabulary follows.

Ideas you can develop

For each view, one idea with a mechanism behind it is worth more than three without.

Notice that none of these needs a statistic. The mechanism is the support. If you do not know a real figure, do not invent one.

The full answer

There is continuing disagreement about whether prisons exist to punish offenders or to prepare them for life after release. While punishment serves an important purpose, I believe that preparing prisoners to rejoin society is the more valuable aim. The argument for punishment rests on deterrence. A person considering a crime weighs what they stand to gain against the consequences of being caught, and a serious sentence makes that calculation less attractive. Punishment also matters to the people affected by crime. When victims feel that a sentence does not reflect the harm done to them, confidence in the legal system falls, and that loss of confidence is difficult to repair. The case for rehabilitation, however, rests on a simple fact. Almost every prisoner is eventually released. Someone who leaves prison with no qualifications, no work experience and no housing returns to the same circumstances that led to the original offence, and is therefore likely to offend again. If the same person leaves with a trade and a place to live, the situation has changed. Training prisoners is also cheaper for the state than imprisoning the same individuals repeatedly, since a person in work contributes tax rather than consuming public money. In my view these two aims are not in conflict, but the second has been neglected. Losing one's freedom is itself a punishment, and it happens whether or not the time inside is used productively. The real choice is what the sentence is for, and a system that releases people better equipped than when they arrived protects the public more effectively than one that simply holds them. In conclusion, although punishment has a legitimate deterrent role, prisons should give greater priority to preparing offenders for release, because that is what reduces future offending.

That answer is 297 words.

What each paragraph is doing

The introduction, two sentences. The first paraphrases the question without copying it. The second states the position. No background, no definition of crime, no "since the dawn of time". A long introduction costs you words you need in the body.

Body 1, the other side first. Writing the view you disagree with first is a practical choice. It gives you something to answer in Body 2, which makes the essay feel like an argument rather than two separate lists. The paragraph has one idea, deterrence, explained through its mechanism, then a second supporting point about public confidence.

Body 2, your side, developed further. This paragraph is deliberately the longest. The sentence "Almost every prisoner is eventually released" is the hinge of the whole essay, and the three sentences after it explain the consequence step by step: no training, same circumstances, likely to offend again. That chain is what the descriptors mean by an idea that is extended and supported.

The fourth paragraph, the opinion. This answers the question the essay set itself. It also does something careful: it concedes that imprisonment is already a punishment, which lets the writer prefer rehabilitation without appearing to excuse crime.

The conclusion, one sentence. It restates the position with its reason attached and introduces nothing new.

Under Coherence and Cohesion, notice how little linking vocabulary the answer uses. There is one "however" and one "therefore". The connections are made by the order of the sentences, which is what the criterion actually rewards.

Vocabulary that is precise rather than decorative

Five words used accurately beat fifteen used approximately. If you are not sure what a word means precisely, do not put it in the essay.

Four crime questions to practise

All four are written in the standard task style for practice.

1. Some people think that the best way to reduce crime is to give longer prison sentences. Others believe there are better alternative ways. Discuss both views.
2. In many countries the number of young people committing crimes is a concern. What are the causes of this, and what can be done about it?
3. Some people believe that community service is a more effective punishment than prison for minor crimes. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
4. Technology makes it easier to prevent crime, but it also creates new types of crime. Discuss.

For each one, write only the mechanism for two ideas before you write any sentences. If you cannot explain why an idea would work, it will not survive 90 words.

What to do today

Take question 1 above and write Body 2 only, the paragraph carrying the view you hold. Aim for 90 words and no linking words except one. Then read it back and ask whether every sentence after the first adds a step to the argument or just restates it.

When you have a full answer, paste it into Bandly for an estimated band on each of the four criteria and the specific sentences behind each estimate. Those bands come from a scoring engine rather than from a qualified examiner, so use them to find the sentences that are asserting instead of explaining.