Essay On Adult Sentencing

565 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Theories of restorative justice

When sentencing someone the Criminal Justice Act 2003 sets out the aims of sentencing for adult offenders. It focus’ on the punishment of the offenders, the reduction of crime (which includes reduction by deterrence), the reform and rehabilitation of offenders, protection of the public and the making of reparation by offenders to persons affected by their offences. Retribution means the offender is punished in respect to what they deserved. It is looked at in correlation to the crime they committed. Retribution does not try to change behaviour. Deterrence can be separated into two categories: individual deterrence and general deterrence. Individual deterrence attempts to prevent the offender from offending again through the fear of further punishment. General deterrence attempts to stop potential offenders from committing a crime. Rehabilitation is used to help offenders back …show more content…

When an offender has previous convictions that are of a similar nature of the most recent committed crime then this can increase the sentence. If the offender was on bail whilst committing the crime, then this is also an aggravating factor. Furthermore, any animosity that is displayed in a racial or religious context, or animosity to disability or sexual orientation being involved within the crime that has been committed can all be aggravating factors. Furthermore, the court will want to know for example, in the case of theft, is the value of the goods that have been stolen and if the person that committed the crime was in a position of trust. A mitigating factor that can reduce the sentence is a guilty plea. The sliding scale is used to indicate how much of a reduction is allowed at different stages in the proceedings. The longer it takes for an offender to plead guilty the smaller the percentage of reduction becomes. Another factor is if there are no previous convictions then there may be a small

Show More
Related

  • Post Sentencing Essay

    889 Words  | 2 Pages

    This is offered to provide an incentive for “good behaviour” and ultimately rehabilitation during a sentence. The granting and restriction of parole is outlined in the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (NSW), and allows those with sentences of more than three years to be released after they have served their minimum sentences. The encouragement of rehabilitation upholds the rights of the community and offender, as the offender’s rights are not undermined by through excessively restricting their freedoms and the reintroduction of the rehabilitated offender into society minimises the threat of reoffending. However, the reward of parole for some offenders has resulted in community dissatisfaction. The Age article “Adrian Bayley should not have been on parole” represents a social concern regarding the leniency of parole for violent sexual offenders. The release of the evidently non-rehabilitated offender resulted in a breach of parole and the sexual assault and murder of Jill Meagher, a 29 year old Melbournian woman. As a result of the injustice of the lenient decision and subsequent community retaliation, new parole laws were introduced in Victoria during 2014. This legislation is outlined in the Corrections Amendment (Parole) Act 2014, and the penalty for breaching parole includes up to three months jail and/or a $4200 fine. Thus, there is greater justice for the victim and especially the community through the discouragement of crime for offenders who may not be rehabilitated and are released on

    Read More

  • Criminology And Criminal Justice Theories

    1121 Words  | 3 Pages

    Though these polices are effective in decreasing the amount of crimes committed, they are often criticized for being harsh to those who commit nonviolent offenses such as drug crimes. According to Wallace (1993), mandatory sentencing takes away the judge’s discretion and allows the prosecution to possess more power within the courtroom. This may be especially true for cases in which the defendant can provide the prosecution with assistance for another case or for another participant in the crime. The prosecutor uses the defendant for information in exchange for shorter sentences, swinging the case in the prosecutions favor, and leaving other defendants without useful information at a

    Read More

  • Classical Deterrence: The Threat Of Conforcement In Society

    1381 Words  | 3 Pages

    3, para. 3). Criminal propensity theories lean towards the idea that those who are more criminally prone care less about deterrence because of their risk-taking nature; which is not to say sanctions are irrelevant to criminal prone, just that the more criminally prone a person is, the less sanctions and deterrence matter (Wright, Caspi, Moffit, & Paternoster, 2004, p. 3, para. 4-5). A third theoretical view has the idea that more criminally prone individuals react to deterrence than law abiding, morally sound individuals because the latter do not consider the calculated costs of crime, but rather follow the law regardless (Wright, Caspi, Moffit, & Paternoster, 2004, p. 4, para. 6). This theory lends itself to more of a stalemate, as those prone to follow the law cannot be further deterred from breaking the

    Read More

  • Rehabilitation Vs Punishment Analysis

    1008 Words  | 3 Pages

    In our society the criminal justice system is expected to handle the individual that committed a crime by either punishing them or rehabilitating them. Punishment is the authoritative imposition of an undesirable or unpleasant outcome upon a group or individual, in response to a particular action or behavior that is deemed unacceptable or threatening to some norm. Rehabilitation is the re-integration into

    Read More

  • Essay On Elderly Offenders

    929 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to the American Civil liberties report, 246,000 convicts are age 50 and older. At this age group they face many challenges, not only do they go through different challenges, but taxpayer’s money is providing for all the extra services elderly inmates need. An eldedy inmate requires more attention medically than a younger inmate. At what point does an elderly offender stop being dangerous? Is there a way where the elderly inmate number can stop increasing and save the taxpayers money?

    Read More

  • Criminal Punishment: Sentencing

    1028 Words  | 3 Pages

    The sentencing process is created by some of the legislative party, who use their control to decide on the type of criminal punishment. The sentencing guidelines for the judges to go by can be different depending on the jurisdiction and can include different sentencing such as “diversionary programs, fines, probation, intermediate sanctions, confinement in jail, incarceration in a state or federal prison, and the death penalty” (Siegel & Bartollas, 2011, p. 40). In some jurisdictions the death penalty is not included as one of the punishments. Being sentenced is step one of the correction process and is in place to discourage repeat offenders (Siegel & Bartollas, 2011, p. 40). Depending on the crime committed the offender can be sentenced to a consecutive sentence or a concurrent sentence. If an offender is charged for committing more than one crime the judge can give the offender a concurrent sentence where both charges are served at the same time. If an offender is charged for committing more than one crime the offender can be giving a sentenced where he has to serve time for each crime one after the other (Siegel & Worrall, 2013, p. 210). Once the offender has been sentenced from there you will be able to determine if the sentence is indeterminate or determinate.

    Read More

  • Punishment In Australia Essay

    546 Words  | 2 Pages

    There are several types of punishment that can be inflicted upon an offender including, fines, community sanctions and imprisonment (The Judicial Conference of Australia, 2007). Punishment is described as a sanction which inflicts a certain amount of pain and loss on the offender, used for payback and deter (The Judicial Conference of Australia, 2007; Carlsmith, Darley, & Robinson, 2002). There are three ways society justifies punishing offenders, through the

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of Retribution

    537 Words  | 2 Pages

    Deterrence – is connected to punishment where it is a way to let a person who has committed a crime know and to let the rest of society or those looking to commit a crime know it will not be tolerated or accepted and there is the possibility of some form of punishment. (Stojkovic and Lovell 2013) If a person or society sees what can happen if they commit a crime by seeing what happens to others then they are more likely to obey the laws and live an honest lifestyle.

    Read More

  • Indeterminate Theory

    1041 Words  | 3 Pages

    To begin with, there are several theories and perspectives that can explain the causation of crime. Each perspective has its own opinion about why people commit crimes. It analyzes three different perspectives which are social, biological and classical. Let’s take a look at all three and determine which perspective would be best fitted with the two types of sentencing models which are called determinate and indeterminate.

    Read More

  • Sentencing Theory

    1417 Words  | 3 Pages

    The main purpose of sentencing is to punish the offender and to set a precedent to deter others from doing the same. The five main purposes of sentencing are the deterrence, incapacitation, retribution, rehabilitation, and restorative justice. The sentencing model states that judges and juries evaluate the guilt of the offender.

    Read More

  • Theories Of Crime Deterrence

    1615 Words  | 4 Pages

    There are two types of crime deterrence, individual (specific) deterrence and general deterrence. “Specific deterrence is the belief that punishment will reduce the likelihood

    Read More

  • Criminal Justice: The Goals of Sentencing

    725 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sentencing is the imposition of a criminal sanction by a sentencing authority , such as a judge. Schmallger & Smykla, 2009, pg# 71) There are seven goals of sentencing including revenge, retribution, just deserts, deterrence, incapacitation, rehabilitation and restoration. Revenge refers to a retaliation to some kind of assault and injury. Revenge can be a type of punishment for the criminal justice system. The jury, sometimes, basis there choices on emotions, facts and evidence. It is considered revenge in some cases because the victim's looks at it that way when they feel justice has been served. Retribution is a type of sentencing involving another form of retaliation. Retribution means "paying back" the offender for what he or she has done. ( Schmalleger & Smykla, 2009, pg# 73) The victim is not alone when it comes to being affected by the crime. Society is strongly affected by what a criminal does in whichever area he or she chooses. Retribution, in a good sense, would be if a coworker does her best as her job and her boss gave her a raise. This would be considered paying her back for her good deeds. As far as the criminal's heinous acts, retribution would more than likely be community service in the town were the crimes occurred. This form of sentencing gives a sort of relief to society

    Read More

  • Deterrence Theory of Crime

    1035 Words  | 3 Pages

    Deterrence theory of crime is a method in which punishment is used to dissuade people from committing crimes. There are two types of deterrence: general and specific. General deterrence is punishment to an individual to stop the society as a whole from committing crimes. In other word, it is using the punishment as an example to “scare” society from precipitating in criminal acts. Under general deterrence, publicity is a major part of deterrence. Crime and their punishments being showing in the media or being told person to person can be used to deter crime. Specific deterrence is punishment to the individual to stop that individual from committing other crimes in the future. This type of deterrence is used to teach the individual a lesson whatever action that participated in. Specific deterrence is founded on a principle called hedonistic calculus meaning, “an assumption that human nature leads people to pursue pleasure and avoid pain” (Brown, Esbensen, & Geis, 2010, p 155).

    Read More

  • Deterrence Theory

    1630 Words  | 4 Pages

    There are several aspects within deterrence that are important to understand when discussing the theories of deterrence and labeling. According to the deterrence theory, there are two different classifications of deterrence—specific and general. First, specific deterrence is defined as apprehending an offender and punishing him or her which will refrain them from repeating crimes if they are caught and punished by the criminal justice system (Akers and Sellers, 16). Secondly, general deterrence is defined as the states way of punishing society for a crime that they have not committed, while using a certain group of people who have committed that crime. By doing so, those who are in charge of punishment, inflict fear on members

    Read More

  • Justifications for Punishment in Modern Society

    1614 Words  | 4 Pages

    Retribution is what most commonly referred to as the “just deserts” model that says the punishment should match the “degree of harm a criminal has inflicted on their victims” (Stohr, Walsh, & Hemmens, 2013, p.6). In other words, what they “justly deserve”. Where minor crimes should expect a minor punishment, those who commit more severe crimes should expect to be met with just as severe of a punishment in return. An example, some believe that when someone kills someone else, that person should then, in turn, receive the death penalty (depending on the state this would also be allowed or expected by law).

    Read More

More about Essay On Adult Sentencing

Open Document