NCJ Number
139354
Editor(s)
A Hirsch,
A Ashworth
Date Published
1992
Length
428 pages
Annotation
This anthology of essays and documents on criminal sentencing in both the American and British legal systems reflects major current ideas about sentencing theory and policy.
Abstract
Each of the seven chapters has an introduction by one of the volume editors. The first four chapters present the theoretical underpinnings and the objectives of four distinct conceptions of punishment: rehabilitation, deterrence, incapacitation, and desert theory. The fifth chapter considers ways of guiding judicial discretion so as to achieve some of the objective of the theories of punishment previously described. The sixth chapter, which focuses on community punishments, addresses alternative sentencing options in the form of noncustodial penalties such as day fines and probation with intensive supervision. The book concludes with a chapter by the volume editors that places sentencing in a broader social context, with attention to issues such as how sentencing should respond to the concerns of the victim and what relation it should have to the early stages of the criminal process. Each chapter contains a list of suggested readings. Subject index