Criminal sentencing as a reintegrative practice

Professor Frédéric Mégret welcomes Dr Antje du Bois-Pedain, Cambridge U., for a talk on criminal sentencing.

Abstract

This paper develops a conception of state punishment as setting, on behalf of the polity, reasonable terms for the polity’s continued relationship with an offender in respect of his crime. This notion of state punishment is rooted in the constitutional status of offenders as citizens and the consequent non-severability of relations of right between the offender and the polity. It also has important implications for sentencing practice. Traditional statements of the aims of a criminal punishment – lists that tend to include just retribution, general and special deterrence, incapacitation, and rehabilitation  – leave sentencing judges with very little guidance as to how to approach the individualisation of sentences. Grasping that criminal trials and sentencing decisions are best understood as integrative social practices allows judges to take a constructive approach to sentencing. It also helps us to see the principled justification for, and outline practical applications of, s 718(2)(e) of the Criminal Code in respect of aboriginal offenders.

About the speaker

Dr Antje du Bois-Pedain is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law and Deputy Director of the Centre for Penal Theory and Penal Ethics at the Institute of Criminology, where she leads the Centre’s research projects on Criminal Law and the Authority of the State, and Penal Censure. She founded and convenes the Cambridge Transitional Justice Research Network, an informal association of Cambridge-based scholars working on issues of post-conflict justice and socio-political reform.