Topic 2: Sentencing Flashcards
What are the 6 aims of sentencing?
- Reparation
- Retribution
- Denunciation
- Deterence
- Rehabilitation
- Protection of the public
What is the aim of Retribution?
- Punish the offender for their behaviour
- An eye for an eye
- Punishment proportional to the crime
What are the aims of Denounciation?
- Society expresses its disapproval of criminal activity
- show moral boundaries of acceptable conduct
What are the aims of Individual Deterrence?
- The courts give an individual an unusually harsh sentence to deter that person from committing crimes again
- Usually a lengthy sentence or hefty crime
What are the aims of General Deterrence?
- The courts give an offender an unusually harsh sentence to deter the rest of society from committing similar crimes
- Put Society off committing crimes
What are the aims of Rehabilitation/Refromation?
- Changing the offenders behaviour and tackling the reasons why they committed the crimes in the hope that they won’t commit them again
- eh. Community sentences, rehab
What are the aims of Protection Of The Public?
- The public needs to be protected from dangerous offenders
- May need to be removed from society or certain areas
What are the aims of Reparation?
- Compensate the victim or society for the crime they have committed
- eg: money or unpaid work
What are mitigating factors?
Factors that make the crime less severe and justify a more lenient sentence
State some examples of Mitigating factors.
- Age of the Defendant
- No previous convictions
- Early guilty plea
- Showing remorse
- Mental illness of the Defendant
- Minor role in a crime
- Cooperating with the police
What is an aggravating factor?
Factors that make the crime more serious and justify a harsher sentence
State some examples of Aggravating factors.
- Use of weapons
- Vulnerable victim
- No remorse
- Previous Convictions
- Racially motivated
- Gang attacks
What do the courts also look at when convicting a offender?
- Previous convictions
- Pre-sentence report (by probation)
- Sentencing guidelines
Give examples of sentences.
- Mandatory life sentence
- Discretionary life sentence
- Extended sentence
- Fixed term sentence
- Minimum sentences
- Suspended sentences
- Fines
- Community orders
Name some examples of community orders.
- Unpaid work
- Activity requirement
- Drug rehabilitation requirement
What other non-custodial sentence can you have & name an advantage and disadvantage.
- Fines
- AD: Brings in revenue to the courts, quick penalty for a minor crime
- DIS: Magistrates don’t always use their powers to collect fines, a person can do unpaid work instead of paying the fine
Give the advantages to custodial sentences
- Offenders cannot commit crimes in prison
- Opportunities to rehabilitate offenders
Give the disadvantages of custodial sentences.
- Prisoners may learn new ideas for committing crimes from other prisoners
- Conditions in prisons are poor and suicide rates are high
- Budget cuts and overcrowded prisons prevent any effective rehabilitation
- There’s sometimes family breakdowns and prisoners may become homeless
- The stigma of prison means opportunities to get employment after is limited, pushing ex-offenders back into crime
What are the advantages to community sentences?
- Less disruptive than custody as offender keeps living with family and can continue their job
- Most offenders given supervision orders find them useful as it allows them to talk through their problems and confront their behaviour
What are the advantages to fines?
- Brings in revenue to the courts
- Quick penalty for minor crimes
What are the disadvantages to community sentences?
- Tagging can be seen as degrading to the offender - though it is less degrading than prison
- Re-offending rates are still high
What are the disadvantages to fines?
- Magistrate’s do not always use their powers to collect fines from pay or benefits
- The offender can do unpaid work instead of paying off debts
Give examples of alternative powers that are available to the courts.
- Fines
- Discharges
- Disqualification from driving
- Compensation orders & restitution orders
- Deprivation & forfeiture orders
What are the 2 types of discharges and what do they entail?
- Conditional discharge:
No further action will be taken unless a further offence is committed. If another crime is committed, the courts will impose another punishment. - Absolute discharge:
No further action is taken at all. Very rarely used as a sentence!
