ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the grading of offenses within the category of sexual offenses. A legal code’s grading of the seriousness of a blameworthy violation appears in two forms: within offenses and between offenses. Different levels of punishment are attached to these different intra-offense gradings. The person’s willingness to violate the announced rules of society may be part of the foundation for punishment, and this factor is already taken into account in the sentence for the first offense. Questions of offense seriousness and grading have become more important of late because of the move to standardize sentences by creating sentencing guidelines that judges must follow when they sentence convicted criminals. An alternative explanation is that, having once been officially sanctioned, greater punishment is called for with the second offense because the subsequent violation is a greater challenge to the authority of the criminal law.
