ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses a critical issue in the relationship between sentencing and the legitimacy of trial justice. Understanding why it is that particular cultures, communities, social groups or individuals hold certain attitudes and beliefs about the justifications for punishment and, more significantly, how this affects their perceptions of legitimacy is crucial to establishing the normative significance of sentencing in any context. 1 As argued in the preceding chapter, it is only by integrating a more normative perspective into sociological explanations that relevant and meaningful interpretations of sentencing can be achieved for each context. 2 Therefore, I would argue that increasing our understanding of how social and normative factors interrelate in any context holds the key to providing more informed comparative analyses and enhances the debate about the role of punishment and sentencing as an aspect of criminal justice governance.
