ABSTRACT
This book discusses the relationship between sentencing and the legitimacy of punishment. By ‘legitimacy’ the book refers to the public perception of punishment, rather than offering a moral critique of the sentencing process. Sentencing is crucial because it is the point in the trial where the aims of punishment are given concrete and public expression in specific cases. Therefore, the process of sentence decision-making provides a crucial link between the ideology 1 which informs punishment and the context against which the legitimacy of punishment is judged.
