POLS 3300 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Dangerous Offender, Ryan Lloyd, Summary Offence
11 Apr 2018
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Sentencing can be defined as the judicial determination of a legal sanction upon a person convicted of an offence. The definition above describes the three essential elements of sentencing: the sanction must be legal. This means that for a sentence to be permissible, it must be an authorized and legitimate sanction. In other words, judges cannot simply make up a form of sentence, nor can they impose sentences that are no longer lawful in canada: the sanction must be imposed by a judge. In canada, only judges have the legal authority to sentence individuals found convicted of a crime. This is essential to protect and promote the rule of law: the sanction must follow a criminal conviction. A sentence is only legitimate if it is imposed after an individual has been convicted under the due process of the law. The criminal code of canada contains several important provisions that provides purposes of sentencing.
