Sentencing

Question 1

Aims of sentencing

Answer 1

According to the Criminal Justice Act 2003:
• Punish the offender.
• Reduce and deter crime.
• Reform and rehabilitate the offender.
• Protect the public.
• Make reparation to the victim.

Question 2

Retribution

Answer 2

• The punishment should fit the crime.
• There must also be a sense that society and the victim are avenged.
• The Sentencing Council issues guidelines on punishment tariffs.

Question 3

Denunciation

Answer 3

• In denouncing a crime, society expresses its disapproval and reinforces moral boundaries.
• Long prison sentences, tagging etc can be used as ways of ‘incapacitating’ the criminal and protecting the public.
• Punishment should also act as a deterrent to the criminal and the general public.
• 55% of adult prisoners reoffend within 2 years of release and for young offenders, the figures are even higher with 70% of them given custodial sentences having reoffended within 2 years.
• Occasionally the courts will give harsher sentences as a general deterrence. E.g. the riots of 2011. this can contradicts the principle of retribution, since the sentence does not match the offence.

Question 4

Rehabilitation and reform

Answer 4

• Rehabilitation states the idea that the offender’s behaviour must be altered so that they will conform to community norms.
• Reformation attempts to ensure that the offender will not offend again in the future.
• Courts can issue individualised sentences where the defendant’s history is taken into account in what is called a pre-sentence report.
• Drug abusers can sometimes have to undergo detox or educational programmes.
• Can sometimes lead to inconsistency in sentencing with different types of people receiving different sentences for the same crime.
• Offenders from poor home backgrounds are seen as less likely for reform.
• Offenders are also often asked to pay compensation to make for their crimes.
This constitutes reparation.

Question 5

Protection of the public

Answer 5

• The public must be protected from dangerous offenders.
• Those who commit the most serious crimes such as murder or violent sexual offences can receive life imprisonment or other long terms of imprisonment.
• Criminal Justice Act 2003 allows the court to send offenders who are deemed a serious risk to the public to be sent to prison for the protection of the public.
• Some offenders might be banned from certain town centres or attending particular football matches.
• Others can be electronically tagged or have curfew orders at night time.
• Reparation is when the court might order the offender to pay compensation to the victim, do community service under the supervision of a probation officer or even try and bring offender and victim together to make direct reparation.

Question 6

Denunciation

Answer 6

• Denunciation is when society is expressing its disapproval of criminal behaviour.
• The best example of this is drink driving.
- Most people view this as morally unacceptable behaviour, therefore imposing fines, driving bans and increasingly severe prison sentences reflects how society’s opinion about drink driving has changed.

Question 7

Other factors involving sentencing

Answer 7

A guilty plea
Depending at what stage of proceedings the defendant decides to enter a guilty plea, the Sentencing Council issue the following guidelines:
- At the first reasonable opportunity (1/3 off a sentence)
- After the trial date has been set (1/4)
- Door of the court or after the trial has begun (1/10)
- Anything after that, no reduction.
Previous convictions
If the defendant has no previous convictions for similar crimes, they are more likely to be treated more leniently.

Question 8

Custodial Sentences

Answer 8

• Most serious punishment the court can impose and only issued in only the most extreme circumstances:
- Mandatory life sentence:
The only sentence a judge can impose for murder, although they can vary the minimum amount of time to be served before eligibility for release on licence. Full life terms can be issued in some of the following cases:
• The murder or abduction of a child that had a sexual motive.
• A murder done for political, religious, racial or ideological reasons.
In relation to aggravating factors that might influence sentencing in cases that do not warrant a full life sentence, there are questions such as was there a significant degree of planning and premeditation, was the victim particularly vulnerable or did the defendant inflict mental or physical abuse on the victim before killing them?

Question 9

Discretionary Life

Answer 9

For an offence of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, s 18 of the Offences against the person Act 1861 states a maximum life sentence, although this is not mandatory, so the judge can give a lesser sentence depending on the circumstances.
In the event of certain second offences, a life sentence should be given however.

Question 10

Fixed term sentences

Answer 10

Depends on the nature of the crime. Only offenders over 21 are affected. Prisoners are automatically released after they’ve served half their sentence.

Question 11

Suspended Sentences

Answer 11

These can be issued on the understanding that if the offender does not commit another offence over a certain period of time, they will not have to serve a prison sentence. If however they do reoffend, their prison sentence is automatically activated and they will be sent straight to prison where they will serve the time set by the judge along with any sentence for the new offence.

Question 12

Community orders

Answer 12

• Unpaid work requirement.
• An activity requirement.
• A programme requirement.
• Prohibited activity requirement.
• Curfew requirement.
• Exclusion requirement.
• A residence requirement.
• A mental health treatment requirement.
• Adrugrehabilitationrequirement.
• An alcohol treatment requirement.
• Supervisionrequirement.
• An attendance centre requirement if the offender is aged under 25.