Punishment & Sentencing

Chapter 10 in Your Textbook

John Massey
Criminal Justice
 Philosophies for Punishment
 Four basic philosophies
 1) incapacitation, 2) deterrence, 3) rehabilitation, 4) retribution

 Incapicitation
 Offenders can no longer pose a threat to society
 Take away criminal ability
 Remove from community = reduce criminal opportunity

 Deterrence
 Prevent future crimes
 Setting an example (cost/benefit analysis)
 General and Specific Deterrence

 Rehabilitation
 Do not just punish
 Treat and cure (drug treatment, etc.)

 Retribution
 Eye for an eye
 Punishment should be proportional to crime committed
 Forms of Sentencing
 Intedeterminate, Determinate, Truth-In-Sentencing

 Interdeterminate sentencing
 Judge determines minimum and maximum terms for imprisonment
 When minimum is reached – person is eligible for parole

 Determinate sentencing
 Fixed sentencing
 Offender serves an exact amount (usually cannot be reduced)

 Truth-in-sentencing
 Requires those convicted of certain crimes to serve at least 85 % of sentence
 Part of “get-tough” movement

 Good time
 Reduction in time served by prisoners based on their good behavior
 Not used as often as it was in the past
 Forms of Punishment
 Different ways to punish our criminals

 Capital Punishment
 The death penalty (38 states and the federal govt.)
 1st degree murder, murder of a police officer
 Electric chair, lethal injection, firing squad

 Imprisonment
 Very common
 Jails and prisons
 Overcrowding and budget problems

 Probation
 A Community Sanction
 Eases overcrowding
 Electronic monitoring, house arrests, boot camps, etc.

 Fines
 Yet to catch on in the U.S.
 Some minor crimes and drug cases
 Part of salary or income in other countries
 Forms of Punishment
 Restitution and Community Service
 Reparations to injured party
 Pay victims of a crime for “damages”
 Cleaning up litter on roads, painting, landscaping, etc.

 Restorative Justice
 Apologize, show remorse, admit your faults

 Shame Punishment
 Newest form
 Shoplifters, sex offenders
 Sentencing Decisions
 Seriousness of offense
 Criminal history
 Employment
 Victims

 Sentencing Disparity
 Crack v. cocaine possession (5. g v. 500 g.)

 Sentencing Guidelines
 Require judges to give determined sentences based on variety of factors
 Seriousness of crime
 Criminal record

 Mandatory Sentencing/Habitual Offender Laws

 Specific crimes
 Long sentences
 Ex: three strikes
 More on the Death Penalty
 Legal until 1972
 Furman v. Georgia (5-4 vote)
 Violated 8th amendment
 Cruel and unusual punishment

 Gregg v. Georgia (1976)

 Think prohibition of alcohol

 Few executions from 1976-1985

 Increase since 1985
 Slowed up in last few years
 Technology, DNA, Forensics

 Texas #1, Virginia #2

 The Death Penalty Debate
 Death v. life in prison without the possibility of parole (the question)