CHAPTER 4
Contemporary Punishment
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, students should be able to:
2. Identify the different forms of the criminal sanction.
4. Discuss the problem of unjust punishment.
LESSON PLAN
Correlated to PowerPoints
I. The Purpose of Corrections
Learning Objective 1: Discuss the goals of punishment.
1. Herbert Packer argues punishment has three elements:
a. An offense.
2. There are four specific goals or justifications for the criminal sanction:
retribution, deterrence, incapacitation, and rehabilitation.
Class Discussion/Activity
Have students discuss a crime they have committed or someone they know has committed. Ask
if the sentence/punishment was just and what the goal of punishment was for this sentence.
See Assignment 1
A. Retribution (Deserved Punishment)
1. It is the theory that those who commit a particular crime should be punished in
2. Convicted individuals must pay their debt to society generally.
4. Fairness and justice require that convicted individuals be penalized.
5. Beginning in the 1970s, there has been a renewed interest in this justification
named “Just Deserts” meaning deserved punishment.
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B. Deterrence
1. Punishment provides a basis for affecting future choices and behavior of
individuals. There essentially two types of deterrence:
a. General: presumes that members of the general public will be deterred
C. Incapacitation
2. Imprisonment is the usual method of incapacitation; capital punishment is the
ultimate method of incapacitation.
3. In recent years, greater attention has been paid to selective incapacitation.
4. Selective incapacitation—convicted individuals who repeat certain kinds of
crime are sentenced to long prison terms.
D. Rehabilitation
1. This refers to restoring a convicted person to a constructive place in society
through vocational or education training or therapy; convicted individuals are
treated, not punished.
E. New Approaches to Punishment
2. This views crime as an act that practically and symbolically denies community.
3. The primary components of restoration-oriented programs:
a. Crime causes damage to relationships between community, convicted
individual, and victim.
b. The convicted individuals must accept their responsibility for the
injury.
c. The convicted individuals must repair the damage and “restore” victim
F. Criminal Sanctions: A Mixed Bag?
1. Deterrence, incapacitation, retribution, rehabilitation: the justifications for
specific sanctions overlap.
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What If Scenario
What if the main goal of corrections were rehabilitation? What changes would have to be made
to the American correctional system? What if the main goal were incapacitation? What changes
would need to be made then?
II. Forms of the Criminal Sanction
Learning Objective 2: Identify the different forms of the criminal sanction.
A. Incarceration
1. Imprisonment is the most visible penalty imposed by U.S. courts, though fewer
than 30 percent of all sentenced convicted individuals are in prison or jail;
three basic sentencing schemes are used:
a. Indeterminate Sentences:
i. Give correctional officials and parole boards significant control over
the amount of time a incarcerated individual serves. This holds a
minimum and maximum amount of time to be served in prison.
b. Determinate Sentences:
c. Mandatory Sentences:
i. A mandatory minimum.
ii. Three strikes.
Class Discussion/Activity
Have students discuss the concept of three strikes and locate what states follow this concept.
Discuss whether this concept should exist. Are there any states that fall under a two-strikes law?
See Assignment 2
2. The Sentence Versus Actual Time Served
a. Good time formulas.
3. Truth-In-Sentencing
a. Give the public more accurate sentencing information.
B. Intermediate Sanctions
1. Prison crowding and low levels of probation supervision have spurred interest
in the development of these sanctions; less severe and costly than prison, but
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in part.
c. Intensive probation
d. Restitution
e. Community service
f. Boot camp
g. Forfeiture
C. Probation
2. Convicted individual serves time in community under supervision.
4. Conditions are imposed specifying convicted individual’s behavior while on
probation.
6. Shock probation
E. Death
1. May have more significance as a political symbol than as a deterrent to crime.
3. As of July 1, 2016, there were 2,905 people on death row in the United States.
a. More than one-half of them are in the South.
4. More significant as a symbolic issue than a deterrent against crime.
E. Forms and Goals of Sanctions
1. Incarceration, intermediate sanctions, probation, and death can each be used to
2. Invisible punishment
a. Allowing termination of parental rights, establishing felony conviction as
3. Felon disenfranchisement
a. Denying individuals convicted of felony offenses the right to vote.
Media Tool
Visit http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/
o Pro Death Penalty
o Read about advocates for the death penalty.
o Discuss as a class. How do the perspectives presented here supplement the chapter?
What If Scenario
Imagine you have to select one main sanction to which you would be an advocate. Which
sanction would it be and why? Explain yourself to the class.
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III. The Sentencing Process
Learning Objective 3: Explain how different factors affect the sentencing process.
A. The Administrative Context
1. Judges have responsibility for imposing sentences in most cases.
2. Judges are significantly influenced by the context within which they impose
3. Two major types of courts:
a. Misdemeanor courts.
i. Assembly line justice.
ii. Ninety percent of the criminal cases go through these courts.
iii. Most punishments result in fines, restitution, community service, or
a combination thereof.
B. Attitudes and Values of Judges
1. Differences in sentencing can be explained in part by:
a. Conflicting goals of criminal justice.
2. Martin Levin found that Pittsburgh judges, all of whom came from humble
backgrounds, exhibited a greater empathy to defendants than did judges in
Minneapolis who tended to come from upper-class backgrounds.
C. The Presentence Report
2. The primary purpose is to help the judge select the sentence, but it also assists
3. Critics point out that presentence reports are not scientific and often reflect
stereotypes.
4. Because a substantial number of sentencing alternatives are open to judges,
they often rely on the presentence reports for guidance.
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What If Scenario
What if you are a probation officer preparing to investigate the convicted individual’s
background? What type of information would you want to get in order to help the judge make
the most informed sentencing decision? How might you go about getting that information?
Class Discussion/Activity
Have students locate a current case within their community that is in the media. Ask them to
discuss the case as well as the findings. Based on the information they provide, ask them to
determine if the findings were reasonable. If so, why and if not, why not?
See Assignments 3 and 4
D. Sentencing Guidelines
1. Designed to indicate to judges the expected sanction for particular types of
offenses, intended to limit sentencing discretion and reduce the disparity for
similar offenses.
3. Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Grid has become a template for many states
to use in sentencing.
4. Legislatures, the federal government, and commissions construct the guidelines
as a grid of two scores; the convicted individual’s score is obtained by totaling
6. In Supreme Court rulings in 2003 and 2004, statutes that give the judge alone
this authority have been declared unconstitutional.
a. In the state of Washington, the statute was declared unconstitutional in
whole in this regard.
See Assignment 5
IV. Unjust Punishment
Learning Objective 4: Discuss the problem of unjust punishment.
A. Sentencing Disparities
1. Convicted individuals with similar criminal history committed the same
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2. The prison population in most states contains a higher proportion of African
3. Sentencing disparity occurs when widely divergent penalties are imposed on
convicted individuals with similar backgrounds, committing the same offense,
4. The relationship between race and sentencing is a complex issue that involves
many variables.
Media Tool
Visit http://www.sentencingproject.org/template/index.cfm
o The Sentencing Project
o Learn more about the Sentencing Project and the goals of this program.
o Discuss as a class. How can this have significant impact on our society today?
B. Wrongful Convictions
1. Little attention is paid to this serious problem.
3. As of February 2017, there have been 349 criminal cases in which the
convicted person was exonerated because of DNA evidence.
5. Why do wrongful convictions occur?
a. Eyewitness error.
b. Unethical practices by police or prosecutors.
Class Discussion/Activity
Have students research wrongful convictions in the United States as proven by DNA evidence.
Open a discussion on whether or not those wrongfully convicted should or should not be
compensated. Have students explain why or why not.
See Assignment 6
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LECTURE NOTES
This chapter opens with a review of the most commonly cited rationales for punishment:
retribution, deterrence, incapacitation, and rehabilitation. Students should be able to explain each
one. New ideas are emerging regarding these rationales. The authors highlight restorative justice
as a rationale that not just focuses on the convicted individual or the criminal act but also
incorporates the victim and community. This can be an opportunity to show students that we
need not be wed to longstanding ideas. An interesting way to approach this topic would be to ask
students to create new rationales or approaches to crime and punishment.
Students should be made aware that the sentencing process is complicated. It is important to
walk students through the various steps involved in sentencing. Be sure students are familiar
with the concept of discretion and just how prevalent it is in many places within the criminal
justice system. This topic can stimulate an interesting discussion about the appropriate role,
place, and limits of discretion in corrections. You can use the trend of sentencing guidelines
(there are examples in the chapter) to illustrate the erosion of judicial discretion.
One of the most salient points in this chapter is that American corrections is rife with
inequalities. Therefore, an important question we must ask about our system is whether it treats
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KEY TERMS
Retribution
Punishment inflicted on a person who has infringed on the rights of others and so deserves to be
penalized. The severity of the sanction should fit the seriousness of the crime.
General deterrence
Punishment that is intended to be an example to the general public and to discourage the
commission of offenses by others.
Selective incapacitation
Making the best use of expensive and limited prison space by targeting for incarceration those
people whose incapacity will do the most to reduce crime in society.
Rehabilitation
The goal of restoring a convicted person to a constructive place in society through some form of
vocational or educational training or therapy.
Restoration
Punishment designed to repair the damage done to the victim and community by a person’s
criminal act.
Indeterminate sentence
A period of incarceration with minimum and maximum terms stipulated so that parole eligibility
depends on the time necessary for treatment; it is closely associated with the rehabilitation
concept.
Determinate sentence
Mandatory sentence
A sentence stipulating that some minimum period of incarceration must be served by people
convicted of selected crimes, regardless of background or circumstances.
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Good time
A reduction of a person’s prison sentence, at the discretion of the prison administrator, for good
behavior or for participation in vocational, educational, and treatment programs.
Intermediate sanctions
A variety of punishments that are more restrictive than traditional probation but less severe and
costly than incarceration.
Probation
A sentence allowing the convicted individual to serve the sanctions imposed by the court while
he or she lives in the community under supervision.
Shock probation
A sentence in which an individual is released after a short incarceration and resentenced to
probation.
Felon disenfranchisement
A term used to describe laws that either temporarily or permanently restrict the voting rights of
individuals convicted of felony offenses.
ASSIGNMENTS
1. Ask each student to identify why they have or have not committed a crime. Do their
answers correspond to traditional ideas about crime and punishment? In what ways do
they differ? Have them describe what type of punishment would be appropriate given
2. Have students conduct research regarding the “three-strikes law.” Allow them to choose a
state that has this law and ask the student to also locate a state that has “two-strikes law.”
Chapter 4: Contemporary Punishment
Discuss the differences between the two states’ incarcerated population and whether they
believe this to be fair and equitable to people who commit crime. Also ask them to refer
to the states’ department of correctional mission’s statement to see if the two parallel in
3. Have students locate a current case within their community that is in the media. Ask them
to write a summary of the case as well as the findings. Based on the information they
provide, ask them to determine if the findings were reasonable. If so, why and if not, why
4. Ask students to review the case of Casey Anthony. They can observe research studies as
well as YouTube videos on the case. Allow them to form an opinion of the case, how
they would have sentenced the defendant, and if they do or do not agree with the outcome
5. Provide your students with a criminal scenario where a person is arrested and
incarcerated. Provide some details of the person’s criminal history and other details that
would influence the sentencing decisions of a judge. Allow students to individually state
6. Have students research a wrongful conviction case and present this to the class. Make this
a research project covering the crime, the evidence of the case at the original time of
conviction, and how the conviction was overturned. Great examples for students include
ANSWERS TO END-OF-CHAPTER DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Although the answers provided below will vary from student to student, the responses should
include at a minimum a discussion of the following key points.
1. Should one goal dominate how judges assign criminal sanctions? If not, how would you
organize the different goals? By the amount of harm that a person who commits a crime
causes? By an individual’s criminal history? By some other factor?
2. Can all individuals be rehabilitated? What kinds of individuals are most likely to benefit
from rehabilitation efforts? How should the correctional system deal with people who are
difficult to rehabilitate?
3. How much discretion should judges, prosecutors, and parole board members have in
administering the criminal sanction? Should one of these positions enjoy higher levels of
discretion relative to the others? If yes, what justifies such a view?
4. Suppose you are a state lawmaker. What factors would influence your vote on how
criminal sanctions should be used? What factors would you ignore?
5. How would you respond to the argument that individuals who are wrongfully convicted
are simply casualties of the war on crime? How would you feel if your friend or relative
was wrongfully convicted? If you had a friend who was exonerated of a crime he or she
did not commit, what government compensation would be best?