StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...

The Impact of Sentencing Guidelines - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
The Impact of Sentencing Guidelines Institution Affiliation: Date: There has been an increased growth and use of sentencing guidelines in the US in the last couple of years. The increased use of sentencing guidelines has triggered enormous and intensive debates in regard to their impact on the justice system of the United States…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER97.1% of users find it useful
The Impact of Sentencing Guidelines
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "The Impact of Sentencing Guidelines"

Download file to see previous pages

Since the year 1966 when such guidelines began to be established, different forms of sentencing guidelines have come up, owing to their formulation and implementation. The last couple of years have had a significant increase in the formulation, implementation and use of these sentencing guidelines. Presumptive and voluntary sentencing guidelines have been used since the time sentencing guidelines began operation (Lubitz, 2001). This paper intensively assesses the impacts of the sentencing guidelines to the justice system and to the society at large.

This is in the view point that laws are set up to regulate and control the behavior of the society prior to the rights and freedoms of individuals. In the light of sentencing guidelines, this paper will also consider the goals of sentencing, the different types of sentences, constitutional rights in the context of sentencing and the overall impact of these sentencing guidelines. Goals of Sentencing A sentence refers to a formal and legal judgment pronouncing a specific punishment imposition following a crime conviction (Barlow, 2000).

Different sentences are meant to achieve different results. In this regard, the goals of sentencing may vary from time to time. However, there are basic goals that sentencing is purposed to achieve. Deterrence is one of the goals of sentencing. In this case, people are afraid to commit crime in order to avoid punishments that have been experienced by those who have committed crime. They therefore refrain from crime (Siegel, 2005). Deterrence can be both general and specific. The aforementioned is a general case.

A specific case involves an act of not committing crime as a result of a punishment previously suffered. Sentencing is also tailored towards rehabilitating offenders. The basic underlying principle is to reform the convict. In rehabilitation, a crime has already been committed and a sentence passed. The aim of the sentence is to promote a conscience, and this goal has led to an intensive sentencing guidelines structuring (Siegel, 2005). Rehabilitation strives to change the behavior of offenders.

In this regard, as much as it regarded a punishment, the sentencing guidelines aims at promoting uniform sentencing for similar incidents of injustice against an individual, community or the society at large. Retribution is another goal of sentencing. In this case, punishment is imposed on offenders given the crime that each offender commits. The offender is linked to the crime committed, making it legal for an offender to deserve the punishment imposed prior to the crime committed. Offenders convicted of the same crime are treated equally (Barlow, 2000).

Sentencing also seeks to achieve incapacitation. Incapacitation is defined as the punishment that reduces the chances of having a crime committed (Siegel, 2005). This goal is based on the idea that offenders convicted of various crimes are locked up in prisons. These prisoners are not bound to commit any crime in the outside society since their movement and actions are restricted, monitored and controlled. Types of Sentences Different types of sentences are imposed to offenders depending on the magnitude of the crime committed, rights and freedoms violated and the effect of such crimes to the society, economy and the state at large.

These sentences vary and a number of them include: Life

...Download file to see next pages Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“The Impact of Sentencing Guidelines Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words”, n.d.)
The Impact of Sentencing Guidelines Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/law/1440918-the-impact-of-sentencing-guidelines
(The Impact of Sentencing Guidelines Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 Words)
The Impact of Sentencing Guidelines Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 Words. https://studentshare.org/law/1440918-the-impact-of-sentencing-guidelines.
“The Impact of Sentencing Guidelines Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/law/1440918-the-impact-of-sentencing-guidelines.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF The Impact of Sentencing Guidelines

Sentencing Provisions of the Criminal Justice Act of 2003

As a result, there has been considerable political input into the criminal justice process, notably through sentencing guidelines, in response to pressure from the public fuelled by high levels of media attention to crime.... In striving to achieve the balance between the need to control crime and the need to ensure that the rights of individuals are preserved to uphold the legal principle that every criminal suspect is innocent until proven guilty, sentencing guidelines in the Criminal Justice Act of 2003 may need to be improved upon, because they may not necessarily be serving the interests of justice in every instance....
12 Pages (3000 words) Article

The Federal Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 and Social Control

This rendered the judge to be in total control of sentencing and it was up to the judge only to envisage various aspects of sentencing the relevant aggravating and mitigating circumstances and how these all factors jointly contributed to the commissioning of the sentence.... The SRA's prime objective was to overcome the chasm of sentencing disparity.... The first step that Congress took was to reject the prevalent view of rehabilitation as the foremost goal of sentencing....
12 Pages (3000 words) Essay

Disparities and Sentencing of African Americans

hellip; Nowadays the issue regarding the disparities and sentencing of African Americans is a burning topic and hit the headlines.... Since it is a very much controversial issue, my primary objective will be exploring the all the aspect of so called disparities and sentencing of the African American clan in the white's land and also calculating possibility and to answer the hypothesis that amount of time that this clan get for the same crime as whites.... Since it is a very much controversial issue, my primary objective will be exploring the all the aspect of so called disparities and sentencing of the African American clan in the white's land and also calculating possibility and to answer the hypothesis that amount of time that this clan get for the same crime as whites....
12 Pages (3000 words) Research Paper

The Classical Principles of Sentencing

pronouncement in R V Sargeant 1974 about the classical principles of sentencing to be followed.... Retribution, Deterrence, Prevention and Rehabilitation which he emphasised to be guiding principles of sentencing are valid even to day in more specialised forms to be applied in graded manner to the individual offender concerned rather than on mass scale without differential approach.... The proposition before us is to examine how relevant the classical principles of sentencing cited in R V Sargeant 1974 1 are today....
13 Pages (3250 words) Book Report/Review

Limited Success of Drug Courts

This essay stresses that a judge's time and discretionary authority could be better spent away from mandatory minimum sentencing, or rehabilitation, rather than punitive punishments for those with addiction problems.... nbsp; Opponents of mandatory sentencing argue that judges lose control over sentencing and cannot apply discretion given the particular facts of a case.... Mandatory minimum sentences under the 1984 sentencing Reform Act tend to favor the perspective that it is better to punish than to rehabilitate....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

British Retail Consortium Policy on Theft from a Shop

This paper "British Retail Consortium Policy on Theft from a Shop" presents a response to the sentencing guidelines Council's draft policy on sentencing cases of theft from a shop.... nbsp; I'll also claim on my own expertise and the organization's expertise and would provide a response to the draft policy guidelines as part of the consultation....
8 Pages (2000 words) Case Study

White Collar Crime

The culture of mandated guidelines still saturates the structure and as such, prominently advises judicial sentencing decisions.... From the paper "White Collar Crime" it is clear that white-collar offenders in the United States have faced sentences far beyond those imposed in prior years....
7 Pages (1750 words) Coursework

Goals of Sentencing

There are sentencing guidelines which are used in the sentencing process.... These sentencing guidelines have certain implications which oftentimes complement the goals of sentencing.... The interplay between sentencing guidelines and constitutional requirements and rights is important in the eventual outcome of a court case (Champion, 2008).... The author of the paper "Goals of sentencing " will begin with the statement that sentences are those punishments that are imposed on convicted defendants....
5 Pages (1250 words) Term Paper
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us