ABSTRACT
The idea of the proportionate or "deserved" sentence has had considerable influence during the last two decades. In actual sentencing policy, that influence is not so widespread as sometimes has been supposed. I n the United States, only a few jurisdictions-Oregon and Minnesota, for example1-have relied on it in systematic fashion. I n Europe, three jurisdictions -Finland in 1976, Sweden in 1988, and England and Wales in 19912-have adopted sentencing framework legislation that stresses explicitly the idea of proportionality. Canada is expected shortly to adopt a juvenile justice law that gives proportionality a central role.3 But even where laws and policies have not changed so much, proportionalism has considerably altered thinking about punishment (see, e.g., Canadian Sentencing Commission 1986).
