SENTENCING
CLU3M: Criminal Law- Correctional System
Introduction
• Once a person has been found guilty of a crime, the Judge
imposes a sentence or a punishment
• The Criminal Code of Canada outlines the abilities of judges to
provide sentences
• They must provide a sentence based on the Criminal Code
maximums or minimums, precedents, plus their own
interpretations
• S. 718 of the Criminal Code outlines the goals a judge must
consider when making a sentence (but they also have many
more factors they must consider, namely the offender, the
victim and society)
Goals of Sentencing
• Protection of the Public
- Main goal
- Protection of the people, property and individual rights
and freedoms
- A crime is not a crime against one person but all of
society, therefore all of society needs to be protected
How do you apply this goal?
Goals of Sentencing
• Retribution
- Society often wants people to “pay” for their
offences/crimes
- Retribution is punishment to avenge a crime or to satisfy
the public that the offender will “pay”
- Historically it has been connected to “eye for an eye” type
justice
- How do you apply this goal?
Goals of Sentencing
• Deterrence
- Sending a message- anyone who breaks the law will be
punished accordingly
- Imposition of a penalty that will discourage people from
committing crimes
- Specific deterrence- discourage criminals from reoffending
- General deterrence- a punishment as a way of discouraging
other members of society
- How do you apply this goal?
Goals of Sentencing
• Rehabilitation
- Helping offenders correct their wrongs and become law abiding
productive citizens
- Treating problems that interfere with an offender’s ability to
function in society
- Programs and education to decrease the likelihood that
someone will reoffend
- Recidivism- reoffending of criminal behavior- Rehabilitation
programs typically cause a 50% reduction in recidivism rates
- How do you apply this goal?
Goals of Sentencing
• Restitution
- Offenders literally pay back for the injury, loss and
suffering they caused
- Community service
- Fines
- Financial compensation
- How do you apply this goal?
Goals of Sentencing
• Denunciation
- Sending a message that the offender’s conduct has
violated society’s basic code of values and that such
conduct will be punished
- “condemning the crime from the society’s point of view”,
perhaps in “words” that the judge uses in issuing the
sentence, or justifyinng it to the criminal
- Over time certain actions become more severe in the
eyes of society
- How do you apply this goal?