ABSTRACT
Sentencing is the allocation of an appropriate penalty to a convicted offender. It is thus a crucial decision which has a major impact on the overall pattern of punishment in Scotland. This chapter shows that sentencers in Scotland exercise considerable discretion and are not required to implement any government ‘sentencing policy’. In addition, Hart has argued that the general justifying aim of punishment is to control crime. There is probably a widespread belief in the community that punishment should ‘do something’ about crime. Sentencers’ choice of punishment in a particular case is an expression of the nature and extent of the disapproval of the community towards an offender. The decisions of sentencers play an important part in deterrnining the size and composition of the prison population. This is of particular importance in those ‘marginal cases’ which lie on the border between a custodial sentence and a community sentence.
