Criminal Law: Sentencing Principles and Macdonald v. R Analysis

This report provides an overview of sentencing principles in criminal law, focusing on deterrence, retribution, and reformation. It discusses the importance of maintaining order and law in society through appropriate sentencing, guided by principles that aim to prevent crime. The report elaborates on deterrence, which uses the threat of punishment to reduce offending; retribution, which seeks justice by making offenders suffer in proportion to their crimes; and reformation, which aims to rehabilitate offenders. It further analyzes the case of Macdonald v. R, advocating for the application of the deterrence principle to prevent future crimes and create a deterrent effect on the public. The report concludes that a comprehensive understanding and application of these principles are crucial for the judiciary to pass correct sentences and maintain societal safety. Desklib provides access to this and other student-contributed assignments.

Criminal Law

Contents
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..............................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION...........................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
The criminal law is the one which deals with the offences and crimes which happens in
the society. It mainly maintains the order and law in the society so that no deterrent effect is
created on the people in order to prevent commission of the crime. There are many sentencing
principles which must be followed by the judiciary in order to convict the offender (Cullen,
Kastner and Richmond, 2020). This report will deal with the sentencing principles in criminal
law which includes deterrent, retribution and reformation and recommendation to the judgment
of case Macdonald v. R.
MAIN BODY
The issue of punishing the criminals is a debated topic for the society wherein
punishment can be defined as something which is unpleasant for the offence which is against the
legal rules that is imposed by the legal authority and administered by society. There are many
sentencing principles which guide the judiciary in order t punish the offender which includes the
following-
Deterrence sentencing principle
It is a major criminal offending which used to deal with threat of punishment that is being
given to than individual who has committed crime as it provides a probability to reduce the
offending level in the society. The main motive of this sentence in principle is that the
punishment given to the individual or the offender will prevent that particular offender from
involving in any other crime, as this will help out to restrain that person and also to protect the
society from further criminal activities that can be let out because of the engagement of that
person. The second major application is to make a fair public and to give them a proper
knowledge that all such kinds of offences will be punished as it will also generalised the basic
deterrent affect and will also promote such events through which commitment of crimes can be
removed. As this Sentencing principle used to have three major elements which are celerity,
severity and certainty. They used to focus on reducing future offending by sanctioning different
kinds of threats of being taken a strict action (Laufer, 2017). It is mainly of two distinct
categories they are like:

 Specific difference sentencing principle is mainly focused on teaching individuals or the
offenders a lesson so that they will not repeat their criminal activities in future events and
it is mainly being done by punishing the offenders or through threatening a proper
sanction And is majorly being assumed that the crime will not be committed again.
 General deterrence it is mainly being applied when a person has committed a crime then
the punishment will be received as same for all the individual were going to commit such
type of crime in future. The sentencing principle of deterrence is focused on promoting
all the growth and positivity and avoiding crime from the society.
Retributive sentencing principle
It is when any offender used to break the law then this principle used to impose justice by
making them suffer in return of the illegal activity which is the response for the crime that is
being seen proportional for the offence. It is mainly a criminal behaviour response which used to
focus on the execution of punishment for all the lawbreakers and all also focus on providing
compensation to the victims. This is mainly severity of punishment that is being proportionate
according to the seriousness of crime. This is generally a restorative principle, which used to
focus on that the offenders should be guilty of the commitment of crime and a proper penalty
should be imposed on their actions. Retributive sentencing principal Also focus on providing
justice to the innocent individuals and forbids Punishment of all the criminal offender who are
not being held responsible for their actions. It excludes all the persons who are being affected
with disability, mental illness or intellectual disabled people. This principle used to focus on that
if any individual is not having any kind of mens rea in their behaviour then their actions are
needed to be punished. This theory also tends to focus on providing compensation to all the
victims who were majorly being affected by the activities of thew offenders. Major focus of
retributive sentencing principles is to punish all the offenders and to take strict actions against
the individuals so that their will not be any such kinds of events takes place in future.
Thus, these sentencing principles focus on the working on the positive approach of the
society and it helps to promote societal safety and all the reduction of criminal activities from the
upcoming future events. As they imply that all the punishments are necessary in order to protect
the society and also for improvising the individual’s inner instinct (Simester and et. al., 2019).

Retribution:
The common form of retributivism mainly stands for the eye for an eye and the tooth for
the tooth. Many retributivists are in the belief that the guilty person must suffer the pain as it is
the application of pains of the punishment to the offender who is guilty morally. Under this
principle, when the offender breaks any law, the justice requires it to suffer in return of
commission of crime which is proportional to its offence. This principle is in contrast of other
sentencing principles such as rehabilitation, deterrence, etc. The main aim of this principle is
firstly to channel retributive sentiments of public into the legal and political system. The
intention behind this is to deter the people from restoring to the blood feuds, lynching and many
other forms of vigilante self- help. Second aim is to promote the social solidarity by participation
in act of punishing and thirdly to prevent such situation wherein the citizen who prefers to obey
law as its civic responsibility decides that it will be fooled to infringe the law when others are
getting away from lawlessness.
It is further based on three principles which includes firstly that those people who commit
any crime or the wrongful act deserve morally to suffer the proportionate punishment, second is
it is impermissible morally and intentionally to punish an innocent or also to inflict large
punishment disproportionately on the wrongdoers (Stahn, 2019).
From above discussed sentencing principles, it is preferred in the case of Macdonald v. R
that deterrent principle must be followed in this as this principle is aimed to prevent the further
commission of the crime in the society by creating deterrent effect on the wrongdoer. It not only
creates fear in the mind of offender but also on general public from the offence of similar or
same character. Justice Windham have reasoned in its judgment that there are many
considerations when passing sentence and the foremost is public interest as the aim of punishing
the offender is to prevent the wrongdoer from further commission of crime as well as create
deterrent effect on the whole society. So this principle is referred in this case as it discourages
further crimes as it works as motivating force of threat of punishment which will normalize the
increase with severity of penalty and conviction and detection of crimes.

CONCLUSION
It is concluded from this that there are many sentencing principles in the criminal law
which guides the judiciary in order to pass the correct sentence. There are many principles which
include deterrent, reformative and retribution which has its own objectives and purpose. For the
case of Macdonald v. R, deterrent principle is preferred as it is aimed to create fear in the minds
of people and serve the public interest in order to discourage people from further commission of
the offence.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Cullen, H., Kastner, P. and Richmond, S., 2020. The Politics of International Criminal Law.
In The Politics of International Criminal Law (pp. 1-24). Brill Nijhoff.
Laufer, W., 2017. The criminology of criminal law. Routledge.
Simester, A.P., and et. al., 2019. Simester and Sullivan’s criminal law: Theory and doctrine.
Bloomsbury Publishing.
Stahn, C., 2019. A critical introduction to international criminal law. Cambridge University
Press.