Sentencing - Denunciation

Sentencing in Criminal Cases -- a Series

Part III

This is the third and last part of our discussion on the principles applied by judges when sentencing criminals.  Some of the main principles are denunciation, general and specific deterrence, protection of the public and rehabilitation.  We have already examined rehabilitation and deterrence.  This week, we will look at denunciation and protection of the public.

The theory of denunciation is that a sentence should bring home to the offender that the crime offends the community and the conduct will not be tolerated.  In other words, some crimes are so despicable that, no matter how little chance there may be of the offender re-offending, there has to be jail time.  It is common for this principle to be raised in cases of sexual assault by a person who is in a position of trust.

Denunciation is the "punishment" aspect of a sentence.  Denunciation is not designed to rehabilitate someone, nor to try to deter others from committing the crime.  It is as close as our society allows us to get to a feeling of revenge.

Protection of the public is a key factor in sentencing offenders.  The obvious importance is to make sure that offenders that present an ongoing risk to the safety of the public are taken out of the public.  For the most part, that means being put in jail. 

As I have stated in earlier columns, jail does not rehabilitate offenders: it usually allows them the opportunity to learn new tricks from the other offenders in jail.  However, despite centuries of research, it is still seen as the best option for protecting the public. We know that jail does not rehabilitate offenders. It also does not make sense to assume that we can throw a person in jail for a few years to serve out their sentence, release them at the end and expect to never see them again.  We rarely put people in jail for the rest of their lives.  The ultimate goal is that the offender will never re?offend.  Therefore, we need to adopt measures that re?integrate the offender back into society in a way that the system can monitor the offender while they try to start off on the right track.  Parole tries to achieve this goal.

If a person is on parole or probation, they are supervised to various degrees by their parole and probation officers.  If the officer is of the opinion that the person is not integrating well, they can impose conditions and restrictions on the person.  The ultimate restriction is that the officer may recommend that the parole be revoked and the person returned to jail until they are more prepared to come back into society.

It is important to remember that all the principles must be applied when sentencing offenders.  We know that the system is not perfect and it fails in some cases.  However, we need to look at a particular sentence in light of all the factors before we make a judgment as to whether the system has worked in a particular case.