Application Question
Suggest how the 5 goals of sentencing should work together in modern society.

Crime sentencing today compared to centuries ago is of two different worlds. As stated in the article, limits on the range of options available to sentencing authorities have been reviewed and are shifted as the comprehension of crime and goals of sentencing are changed. In the past, people had the mindset that sin begets crime and thus should be punished strictly. However, during the time of French and American Revolutions, Enlightening philosophies existed. This has, in some ways, impacted the operation of meting out punishments in the present society. Severity of punishment was not as important as to issue quick and certain penalties.

The most common crimes in the present society are drunk driving, sexual crimes, drug trafficking. In my following paragraphs, I will address each genre of crime by applying the possible goals of sentencing.

Drunk driving is prevalent in any country that legalise pubs and the sale of alcoholic drinks. The severity of punishment for drunk driving depends on whether any lives were lost or any damage was caused to the third party. Christopher Lee, a popular male artiste in Singapore was involved in drunk driving on 8 October 2006. He caused superficial injuries to a motorcyclist and his pillion rider and was arrested as a result of the accident. He was fined $3000 and jailed for 6 weeks and was disqualified from driving for 3 years. From the conviction given, we can see that retribution, deterrence and incapacitation are implemented. Here, deterrence serves two purposes-specific and general. Even though Lee was a celebrity, he still cannot escape the impartiality of the law. Lee’s imprisonment in jail deterred him as well as other celebrities who thought that celebrity status could answer everything. Disqualifying Lee from 3 years of driving prevents the innocent members of the society from being harmed by him. Hence using a couple of sentencing guidelines can help prevent similar cases in the modern society.
The Rehabilitation approach is more appropriate for drug addicts/traffickers. For example, sending drug addicts to Drug Rehabilitation Centre to cure them of their addiction by changing their behavior. However, consideration of number of offences the accused have committed is important. Sending him for rehabilitation alone is not enough as he is a staunch drug addict. Most likely, he would revert back to his old ways as at present, as many as 90% of former “rehabilitated” offenders in the US return to lives of crime. At this aspect, general deterrence must be adopted. Generally, general deterrence here would mean very harsh punishment in order to deter the addict and his other counterparts. Punishment in this form would usually be caning.
Restoration is usually complementary with fines as the crime scope for this approach is normally small. For example, committing of theft or flouting public rules will require that particular person to return stolen goods and community work service respectively.