ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses some of the ways in which the judicial system may deal with offenders. Imprisonment is the most obvious way offenders are punished. The chapter begins with an examination of the purposes of imprisonment, its impact on the individual and its effect on reoffending. It also discusses of some of the main alternatives to imprisonment including fines, probation, community punishments and restorative justice. Besides imprisonment, legal systems have a variety of other means of punishing and reforming offenders. The judicial system responds to offending with a range of sanctions including both custodial and non-custodial sentences. Psychological interventions for offending, which may be offered alongside judicial punishments. Sherman suggests that people who are motivated to offend initially reduce their criminal activities in response to the increased threat of punishment but learn that they are unlikely to be caught and so soon feel able to resume acting on their criminal impulses.
