Comparative Criminal Justice Systems

1
Comparative Criminal Justice Systems

• The Sentencing Process
• From Fines to the Death Penalty
• Reichel / Albanese

2
Questions

• What does society hope to gain
• from punishing wrongdoers?
• Explain the difference between
• a sanction with a humanitarian motive and
• a sanction with a utilitarian motive.
• What would be advantages or disadvantages of
  both?
• Do sanctions serve an economic function?
• If so, should they?

3
The Sentencing Process

• Philosophies of
• Punishment
• Retribution
• Rehabilitation
• Deterrence
• Incapacitation
• Restoration

• Sentencing Practices
• Noncustodial sanctions
• Corporal punishment
• Imprisonment
• Death penalty

4
Question

• Consider the following scenario
• A 21-year-old man is found
• guilty of burglary for the second time.
• This time he has taken a television set.
• Which of the following sentences
• do you consider appropriate for such a case?
  Why?
• Fine Prison Community Service Suspended
  Sentence
• Any other sentence

5
Noncustodial Sentences

• Legal sanctions handed out to offenders that
• do not require time served in a correctional
  facility.
• Alternatives to incarceration include
• Monetary sanctions Fines, day fines, victim
  compensation, community service, and donation
  penalties.
• Community supervision Probation, house arrest,
  and electric monitoring.

6
Fines

• The fine is a penalty imposed on a convicted
  offender by a court, or in some countries, by
  another arm of the criminal justice system,
  requiring that he or she pay a specified sum of
  money.
• Fixed-sum rate system specific offenses are
  allocated a certain value, and offenders are
  fined according to the offenses they commit..
• Day fine a criminal penalty based on the amount
  of money an offender earns in a days work. The
  fine amount is also linked to the severity of the
  crime. The judge equates the crime to punishment
  units and punishment units equate to monetary
  terms, i.e., 10 punishment units equals 10 days
  pay (higher for high income offenders and lower
  for low income offenders).

7
Day Fines

• Advantages (1) provides a balance between the
  crime committed (seriousness) and the offenders
  ability to pay for the crime (2) provides courts
  and alternative to incarceration.
• Countries U.S., Europe, Scandinavia, Cuba,
  Costa Rica, Bolivia (Finland which pioneered this
  penal reform in 1921).
• Sentence length The maximum number of days
  varies from country to country. In Denmark it is
  60 days, while in Germany it is 360 days.
• Examples Sweden and Germany. In Sweden the day
  fine is meant to economically deprive offenders
  and are therefore used primarily for less serious
  offenses (about half of all property and violent
  crime convictions). In Germany day fines are a
  replacement for imprisonment and therefore use
  them even for serious offenses (approximately 75
  of all property offenses and 66 of all violent
  offenses).

8
Victim Compensation

• Restitution is when an offender is required or
  volunteers to pay money to make reparation for
  harm resulting from a criminal offense. Payment
  is made by the offender and is received by the
  victim, his or her representative, or a public
  fund for victims of crime.
• The idea of paying crime victims for losses,
  damage, or injuries predates formal criminal
  justice systems. In ancient times, Babylonian,
  Greek, Roman, and Jewish law all contained
  provisions for compensation to be paid by
  offenders.
• Example Islamic countries consider diyya as a
  replacement to retaliation. Diyya is
  compensation rendered to a victim or victims
  family for the commission of a felony, i.e.,
  willful murder with a weapon. Payment may be
  made by the offenders family or the government.

9
Community Service

• Community service is when an offender is asked to
  pay back the community by performing a set
  number of hours of unpaid work for a
  not-for-profit agency.
• Countries Although community service can be
  traced back to ancient times, by the late 1990s,
  community service as an accepted correctional
  practice was accepted in the United Kingdom,
  Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Netherlands,
  Finland, Germany, France, and the United States.
• Examples In France, community service codes
  were being used in addition to the prison option
  rather than instead of it (net widening). In the
  UK and the US, community service is used both as
  a alternative to incarceration and as a
  supplement to probation.

10
Donation Penalties

• Germany
• Misdemeanor offenses only
• A misdemeanor offender can avoid a criminal trial
  and conviction (and thus a criminal record) by
  paying a sum of money to the victim, a charitable
  organization, or the state. The offender
  acknowledges his responsibility and acts in a
  socially commendable way.
• The donation penalty is voluntary and not
  considered a fine sentence because it occurs
  prior to conviction.
• Misdemeanors in Germany include aggravated
  assault, fraud, extortion, and most economic and
  environmental offenses.

11
Probation

• A key characteristic of contemporary probation
• practices around the world is
• that it attempts to reintegrate the offender into
  society.
• The offender is making a symbolic apology and
• the community is making a symbolic forgiveness.
• Of all the forms of supervising offenders in the
  community, probation is the most common. There
  are many variations worldwide.
• Examples Japan uses professional probation
  officers and volunteer workers China uses the
  police or community units and in Indonesia,
  probation is implemented by the office of the
  prosecutor. Canada, England, and the U.S. have
  the highest rates of probation.

12
House Arrest and Electronic Monitoring

• House arrest offenders are sentenced to terms of
  incarceration, but they serve those terms in
  their own homes i.e., curfews, part-time,
  full-time.
• Countries Australia, Iraq, Thailand, Canada,
  England, Wales, and the U.S.
• Electronic monitoring is a surveillance technique
  often used in conjunction with house arrest. It
  has also been used for intensive probation
  supervision, supervision of parolees, pretrial
  defendants, temporary detention of juveniles,
  gang supervision, and narcotic surveillance.
• Countries England, Sweden, The Netherlands,
  Germany, France, Switzerland, and the U.S.

13
Corporal Punishment

• Any sentence in which a persons body is
  subjected to physical pain such as flogging,
  mutilation, electric shock, or branding.
• Five countries that have the use of corporal
  punishment as a sentencing option Qatar,
  Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Singapore.
  Zimbabwe has the highest rate of incidents of
  corporal punishment (flogging or caning is most
  common).
• Islamic law also prescribes corporal punishment.
  Societies faithful to Islamic Law have little
  choice but to carry out these penalties.
• Examples of Islamic Law Countries Saudi Arabia,
  United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Iran, Sudan,
  Singapore, Bahamas.
• Islamic law methods include flogging, caning,
  whipping with cat-o-nine tails, amputation, and
  cross-amputations.
• Cultural and traditional methods include Female
  genital mutilation (removal of part of or all of)
  which is common in 28 African nations, Egypt,
  Oman, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates
  (approximately 6,000 per day / over 135 million
  of worlds female population). Not used as a
  sanction but to control sexual behavior.

14
Islamic Law Rationale toCorporal Punishment

• Bodily penalties
• Punishment designed to avoid unreasonable
  limitation on individual freedom (in contrast to
  imprisonment).
• Severe physical pain acts as a deterrent (as
  opposed to imprisonment).
• Allows the criminal to resume work and he is not
  prevented from supporting his family.
• Considered an act of penance so the offender can
  resume his life as a normal citizen.
• Prison is only used for recidivists (third or
  fourth time). For example, for first time theft
  hand amputation second time other hand
  amputated third time, amputation of foot or
  imprisonment until repentance.

15
Death Penalty

• The penalty of death has been a sentencing option
  since the beginning of civilization.
• In 2004, 118 nations of the world had outlawed
  the death penalty by law or in practice (all of
  European Union) while 78 retained its use
  (Amnesty International).
• In 2003, China (726 executions), Iran (108),
  Saudi Arabia, Viet Nam (64), and the U.S. (65)
  had the highest rates of executions. In
  contrast, Japan has executed less than fifteen
  people since 1993.

16
Death Penalty(contd)

• Although the international trend is to abolish
  the death penalty (as a human rights issue),
  international courts have not specifically ruled
  that the death penalty is inhumane or degrading
  punishment.
• Methods include Hanging, beheading, firing
  squad, lethal injection, electrocution, and
  stoning.
• Primary justifications deterrence and
  retribution.
• Types of crimes justified murder, drug
  offenses, violent crimes (rape, robbery), tax
  fraud, pimping, adultery, sodomy, apostasy,
  treason. (In other words, crimes that directly
  threaten people homicide, stealing, violations
  of community religious norms, and sexual
  offenses).

17
Death Penalty

• Is it more cruel to know exactly when you will
  die
• and be forced to sit idly by until the moment
  arrives
• Or,
• To know you are scheduled to die but not whether
  it will be this afternoon or 10 years from now
  (Japan)?