The criminal justice system is in place to offer a working organization to crimes and criminals in regards to their punishments and penalties. Defendants are all given their same due processing of the law in which they are presented with a process with which to prove their innocence. Moreover, all defendants start with the old legal adage in their favor, as considered “innocent until proven guilty”. Whether or not this may be a figment of idealism or truth in legal practice is yet to be discerned, but it is the ultimate burden of the prosecution to prove probable cause of the defendant’s guilt in relation to the crime in question.
If guilt is proven at a trial, the next step is the sentencing of the defendant. The proper court sentencing of a criminal is determined by a wide variety of factors in the legal system-according to jurisdiction, criminal history, nature of the crime, and so forth. In the below category on sentencing, we examine just what these variables are, what penalties are common to criminal sentencing, as well as how sentencing plays an integral part in the criminal justice process.
First off, what is court sentencing and what is its place in the criminal justice process? Sentencing is the punishment that a judge and/or jury gives the defendant of a crime in a criminal case, once he/she has been found guilty of the crime, and thus convicted. Punishment sentencing can occur at the preliminary hearing of a criminal case in which the defendant pleads guilty to the charges against him/her or after the crime has been processed through a court trial, and the defendant found guilty of said crime. In either instance, the defendant must be deemed guilty of the crime and formally convicted, before a subsequent court sentencing can ensue.
The way in which the basic structure of the U.S. crime sentencing system works is that certain sentencing laws are in place by the federal government, according to classification of crimes. Depending upon what classification of crime a defendant may be convicted of, as well as a host of other factors-to be discussed later-there is range of punishments that he/she could be sentenced to. At the state level, no matter what jurisdiction a particular crime is being processed, there are more specific severities of punishment awaiting perpetrators of certain crimes, criminal natures, and criminal histories-at the exclusive liberty of the state to determine what these weighted factors may be. For example, some states consider certain kinds of crimes more deserving of heavy punishment sentencing than others. Other states believe repeat offenders of crimes should necessarily be given the full sentence of the federal statute in that crime classification. Still others afford convicted criminals less severe penalties if the defendant is a first time offender, or negligent to an extenuating circumstance. Depending on the nature of the crime, the crime classification, the criminal history, and case specifics; state jurisdictions all approach federal sentencing laws much differently.
When it comes to the actual penalties that derive from various criminal sentences, there are a wide variety of kinds to include one or many of the following for each respective case of crime committed: fines, short term jail time, long term jail time, restitution, community service, terms of probation, suspended sentence, and drug/alcohol rehab and counseling. Unless the crime for which the defendant is convicted of is of an extremely minor degree, most often more than one of these will be included in a comprehensive sentencing of a criminal defendant. In most cases, the actual sentencing for misdemeanors and infractions as soon as the defendant is convicted. Conversely, in more serious criminal cases-such as felonies and federal cases-the parameters of punishment will be deliberated on for a longer period of time-to include collaboration from the presiding judge, prosecution, defense, and probation officer.
As regards how the idea of sentencing fits in with the entire workings of the criminal justice system, there are three main purposes to setting the proper respective punishment for the crime in all sentencing efforts: rehabilitation, deterrence, and retribution, which can-and are-considered in a mutually exclusive fashion. In most all penalties, the object of its existence is to try to rehabilitate the criminal from a life of crime-to make him/her see the error of their ways, and instead, consider a more positive and community-oriented lifestyle. The second purpose of court penalty is to deter people from committing crimes-not just the criminals who have already committed them, but perhaps, ones that might otherwise consider committing them-if it were not for the punishment that would follow. Lastly, another significant purpose for punishment in any form is so that a wrong might be somehow righted, by punishing the perpetrator of said crime. This purpose is typically best explained as the common saying, regarding “doing the crime” and “doing the time” for it.
Source:
http://criminal.findlaw.com/crimes/criminal_stages/stages-sentencing/criminal_sentencing.html