main aims of sentencing policies
Principles of Sentencing
There are five general aims or functions or justifications of punishment:
1. DETERRENCE
There is a belief that punishment for crime can deter people from offending. There are two forms:
- Specific deterrence is concerned with punishing an individual offender in the expectation that he will not offend again.
- General deterrence is related to the possibility that people in general will be deterred from committing crime by the threat of punishment if they are caught.How this aim is effected
- Prison sentence/long prison sentence
- Heavy fine
Effectiveness
Imprisonment, the most serious punishment in the UK, does not always deter further offending:
- According to a Home Office study, 58% of all sentenced prisoners discharged in 1995 were reconvicted of a serious offence within two years of being released. Among young offenders, 76% were reconvicted (Reconviction of Offenders Sentenced or Released from Prison in 1995, April 1999).
At least two points are assumed to be essential for deterrence to be effective:
1. Supporters of deterrence believe that the punishment must be sufficiently severe for it to have a deterrent effect. This assumption can be tested by examining an instance where the level of punishment was altered.
- In 1965, the death penalty was abolished as a punishment for murder. Research indicates that this change had no readily definable impact on the rate of murders. This challenges claims that in America, every execution deters seven or eight other murders.
- A recent Home Office report concludes that there is no basis for inferring that increasing the severity of sentences generally is capable of enhancing deterrent effects (Criminal Deterrence and Sentence Severity: An Analysis of Recent Research, 1999).
2. Supporters of deterrence assume that potential offenders weigh up the rewards and risks associated with crime. However, the extent to which people believe they might be caught is
There are five general aims or functions or justifications of punishment:
1. DETERRENCE
There is a belief that punishment for crime can deter people from offending. There are two forms:
- Specific deterrence is concerned with punishing an individual offender in the expectation that he will not offend again.
- General deterrence is related to the possibility that people in general will be deterred from committing crime by the threat of punishment if they are caught.How this aim is effected
- Prison sentence/long prison sentence
- Heavy fine
Effectiveness
Imprisonment, the most serious punishment in the UK, does not always deter further offending:
- According to a Home Office study, 58% of all sentenced prisoners discharged in 1995 were reconvicted of a serious offence within two years of being released. Among young offenders, 76% were reconvicted (Reconviction of Offenders Sentenced or Released from Prison in 1995, April 1999).
At least two points are assumed to be essential for deterrence to be effective:
1. Supporters of deterrence believe that the punishment must be sufficiently severe for it to have a deterrent effect. This assumption can be tested by examining an instance where the level of punishment was altered.
- In 1965, the death penalty was abolished as a punishment for murder. Research indicates that this change had no readily definable impact on the rate of murders. This challenges claims that in America, every execution deters seven or eight other murders.
- A recent Home Office report concludes that there is no basis for inferring that increasing the severity of sentences generally is capable of enhancing deterrent effects (Criminal Deterrence and Sentence Severity: An Analysis of Recent Research, 1999).
2. Supporters of deterrence assume that potential offenders weigh up the rewards and risks associated with crime. However, the extent to which people believe they might be caught is