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Theories of punishment in criminal law
Punishment within the criminal justice system
Rehabilitation versus punishment in the justice system
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Recommended: Theories of punishment in criminal law
1) When determining the proper punishment for an offender, a judge must take circumstances into consideration. When considering such circumstances, the judge must make the decision whether they affect the situation negatively, positively, or not at all. There are two different types of factors when evaluating the conditions of a crime: aggravating factors and mitigating factors. Aggravating factors can be described as conditions that increase the severity of the offender's sentencing. An example of an aggravating factor that could lead to a longer or more intense sentencing would be if the offender's motives were to target a group or person because of their race, sex, age, religion, or sexual orientation. Another example that could lead to the extension of a sentence is if the transgressor has had several previous convictions. Contrary to aggravating factors, are mitigating factors. Mitigating factors are conditions that lessen the severity or the extent of the offender's sentencing. An example of a mitigating factor would be if the transgressor admits to, and shows authentic remorse for the crime committed. Another example of a mitigating factor would be if the offender has no prior convictions on his criminal record. (DeLisi and Conis 2013) (Garvey 1998) …show more content…
A deferred sentence is when the offender of a small crime, such as stealing, is given the opportunity of no probation as long as they stay out of jail for the duration of their deferred sentence. A few benefits to this type of sentencing is that it's a great way for those who make a mistake to be given a second chance and a clean record and it's also very cost-efficient. (DeLisi and Conis
Nearly every other week, there is a story in the news regarding a murderer who was sentenced to probation, and a first-time offender who was given a hefty prison sentence for committing a very light-weight crime. Potential criminals may see this and carry out a crime, knowing that there are no harsh consequences for doing so. If these systemic flaws were ironed out, potential criminals may be less tempted to commit any crimes, now that the odds are against
Determinate sentencing is becoming more popular in juvenile courts. It is a special statute that allows for the possibility of a juvenile serving a sentence beyond the age of 21. It specifically covers certain violent offenses and drug cases, like murder, capital murder, sexual assault, and indecency with a child. Aggravated controlled substances cases are also covered (TYC website). The alternative to determinate sentencing is blended sentencing, which allows judges to issue delinquent offenders both juvenile and adult dispositions. Depending on the behavior of the delinquent while serving out their juvenile sentence, a fail-safe postadjudication stage occurs to determine whether or not their adult sentence should be suspended or invoked (Belshaw et al, 2011).
Most states had stiffer criminal sanction in place before the three strikes law came into play for repeat offender and most of these criminals would serve lengthy terms for their repeat offenses anyways, however the discretion to impose those lengthy prison sentences was at the hands of the judge time (1 Marvell, Moody 90). One must also consider that not all criminals are even aware that the three strike law exist much less are aware of what its implications would be on their repeat offenses. An...
I would like to take this time to explain my position on Plea Bargains and Mandatory Sentencing. I will show both pros and cons for each topic, as well as give you my personal brief on which one I support.
There are three type of sentencing models used by judges for the sentencing phase of trials; indeterminate, determinate, and mandatory. These sentencing models are used to bring justice to those who are convicted of crimes and must now live with the consequences of their actions. Justice is a word that has a different meaning to each individual person. This paper will discuss, in detail, the meaning of justice, the three types of sentencing models, the pros and cons of each model, and the impact each one has had and continues to have on corrections.
They claim that legal factors play a large role in sentencing male and female defendants and studies such as the ones mentioned do not take these factors into consideration. It is true that legal factors such as criminal history and offense severity do play an important role in sentencing decisions of males and females. However, more recent studies such as the one conducted by Doerner and Demuth do take these legal factors into consideration. Even after controlling for variables such as criminal history and offense severity, they still find unexplained differences in sentencing between genders.
In the past two decades, major developments in guideline sentencing have taken place due to Judicial Discretion and Sentencing Disparities which led to dramatic changes by the U.S. Supreme Court in Federal guideline sentencing.
Over the last few decades classification systems for offenders have been used for a variety of organizational purposes. Over time these classification systems have evolved, not only as a whole in the criminal justice system, but also varying between different organizations. Classification systems that create models based on the risks and needs of offenders are most popular. Throughout the years these models and the purposes for their use have been in a state of change, as well as the way their effectiveness is gaged.
These laws limit the discretion of the judge in regards to the length of sentencing. Other changes that greatly affect the prison population are due to the shift to determinate sentencing versus indeterminate sentencing. Determinate sentencing and truth-in-sentencing laws drop the release rate in prisons were indeterminate sentencing allowed inmates to serve minimum sentences, minus jail time and “good time”, with the chance of parole. Many inmates, with the use of indeterminate sentencing, were even released at their first appearance before the parole board (American Corrections,
A judge has the ability to choose to alter their decision for sentencing based on their respective state’s truth in sentencing program. Depending on the crime and the offender, a judge may decide to mandate the offender to a longer than average sentence. The judge may change the offender’s base sentence. It may be reduced to match a sentence that is similar to a non-truth in sentencing punishment. He or she knows the offender will only serve about eighty-five percent of the sentence before they are eligible for parole or released. By minimizing the sentence, the eighty-five percent served would resemble a sentence that allowed for early release (Chen, 2001, page ii). However, the judge may form a bias of the individual and use this power to order them to a greater amount of time in order to punish the person. An individual who commits a crime, especially a violent crime, would serve almost double the average sentence served (Ditton and Wilson, 1999, pages 7-8). It would also force individuals, who commit less severe crimes to serve longer sentences since they are serving the majority of their sentence. A bias of the offender, which can be based on any extralegal factor, may lead to an injustice sentence and truth in sentencing would not allow them to be released early. There are also innocent people within the criminal justice system that may be falsely convicted.
Sentencing models are plans or strategies developed for imposing punishment for crimes committed. During the 19th century these punishments were normally probation, fines and flat sentences. When someone was given a flat sentence, he or she had to serve the entire sentence without parole or early release. However, by the end of the 19th century the new models were developed. These new models include indeterminate, determinate, advisory/voluntary guidelines, presumptive and mandatory minimum sentencing (Schmalleger & Smykla, 2011).
District attorneys are widely known for making very important decisions in a court case. There are almost 1,800 white district attorneys and about 22 black in the United States. Those numbers should cause some shock because those white district attorneys are the ones who are making these serious decisions for blacks. A study was done to see if just being black could be an aggravating factor in a case. The definition explains that “Aggravating factors are relevant facts and circumstances that increase the severity or culpability of a criminal act.” (Aggravating Factor Law & Legal) This would mean that race is a relevant fact that increases blame in a case which sounds like something that would not actually be valid in court.
One sentence that is handed down is the indeterminate sentence. This sentence permits early release from a correctional institution after the offender has served a required minimum portion of his or her sentence ("Indeterminate vs Determinate Prison Sentences Explained | Criminal Law", n.d.). This may be a good type of sentence for someone that may be a first time offender or maybe one that the judge may feel has a good chance at being rehabilitated. One problem with...
Prison has been around in human society for many millions of years. Having someone who disobeyed the law of that village, town, city or country punished in some form of institution, cutting them off from people, is a common concept – a popular and supposedly “needed” process society has taken to doing for many years now has been put under the spotlight many times by many different figures and people in society. The question remains – do prisons only make people worse? Many articles have been published in many journals and newspapers of the western world (mainly the USA, UK and Australia) saying prison only makes a person worse yet no complaint of the method has come from the less liberal eastern societies; this only proves how in countries where the rights of humans are valued such issues as if prisons only make people worse are important and relevant to keeping fair to all.
A risk factor is any variable increases the probability of later offending, while a protective factor is any variable that interacts with a risk factor to minimize its effects. The two categories of risk factors that tend to get the bulk of attention in developmental crime prevention programs are individual and family-level risk factors. Examples of these types of risk factors are low intelligence and attainment and poor parental supervision, respectively (Lab, 2014). Once these factors have been identified, programs are designed to counteract the risk factors, and enhance the protective factors.