ABSTRACT
Among the factors which should be taken into account is the prevalence of the offence in the society. Where the offence is prevalent, the overriding consideration should be deterrence of both potential offenders and the particular offender: Farfan. In that case, the court stated that the prevalence of rape in the society (in the 1980s) was such that courts: ‘owe a duty not only to the victim but indeed to the society as a whole to impose such punishment as would reflect its utter abhorrence of the deed and which at the same time would serve as a deterrent to other would be perpetrators of this abominable crime.’
