What Do Alternative Sanctions Mean?

University of Chicago Law Review

Volumn 63, Issue 2, 1996, Pages 591-

  Kahan, Dan M ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0347569386     PISSN: 00419494     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/1600237     Document Type: Article

References (6)

1. See Bureau of Justice Statistics, Felony Sentences in State Courts, 1992 table 2 (Jan 1995) (70 percent of convicted felons sentenced to incarceration, 30 percent to probation).
2. See id at table 12 (18 percent of convicted felons fined, 6 percent sentenced to community service); Bureau of Justice Statistics, Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics 464-65 table 5.29 (US GPO 1994) ("1994 Statistics") (fines imposed as sole punishment in only 1 percent of federal fraud cases, 1 percent of federal embezzlement cases, and 7 percent of federal criminal cases overall) (1994 data). A fine is more likely to be used as a supplement to imprisonment, and community service as a supplement to probation, than either is to be used as a substitute for imprisonment. See, for example, Sally T. Hillsman, Joyce L. Sichel, and Barry Mahoney, Fines in Sentencing: A Study of the Use of the Fine as a Criminal Sanction 162-63 (Vera Institute 1984) (fines); Franklin E. Zimring and Gordon Hawkins, The Scale of Imprisonment 183 (Chicago 1991) (community service). Capital punishment is another sparingly used alternative to imprisonment. Indeed, to describe capital punishment as an alternative to imprisonment seems odd. It is a widely shared conviction that capital punishment is appropriate only for a limited number of serious offenses and that it is inappropriate for a wide range of other offenses typically punished by imprisonment. In fact, capital punishment for offenses other than homicide is (for the time being) foreclosed by constitutional doctrine. See Coker v Georgia, 433 US 584, 598 (1977). For these reasons, I will not address capital punishment in this Article. However, the sensibility that some forms of affliction are intrinsically inappropriate for certain types of offenses - a sensibility that is familiar in debates about capital punish
3. See id at table 12 (18 percent of convicted felons fined, 6 percent sentenced to community service); Bureau of Justice Statistics, Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics 464-65 table 5.29 (US GPO 1994) ("1994 Statistics") (fines imposed as sole punishment in only 1 percent of federal fraud cases, 1 percent of federal embezzlement cases, and 7 percent of federal criminal cases overall) (1994 data). A fine is more likely to be used as a supplement to imprisonment, and community service as a supplement to probation, than either is to be used as a substitute for imprisonment. See, for example, Sally T. Hillsman, Joyce L. Sichel, and Barry Mahoney, Fines in Sentencing: A Study of the Use of the Fine as a Criminal Sanction 162-63 (Vera Institute 1984) (fines); Franklin E. Zimring and Gordon Hawkins, The Scale of Imprisonment 183 (Chicago 1991) (community service). Capital punishment is another sparingly used alternative to imprisonment. Indeed, to describe capital punishment as an alternative to imprisonment seems odd. It is a widely shared conviction that capital punishment is appropriate only for a limited number of serious offenses and that it is inappropriate for a wide range of other offenses typically punished by imprisonment. In fact, capital punishment for offenses other than homicide is (for the time being) foreclosed by constitutional doctrine. See Coker v Georgia, 433 US 584, 598 (1977). For these reasons, I will not address capital punishment in this Article. However, the sensibility that some forms of affliction are intrinsically inappropriate for certain types of offenses - a sensibility that is familiar in debates about capital punish
4. See id at table 12 (18 percent of convicted felons fined, 6 percent sentenced to community service); Bureau of Justice Statistics, Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics 464-65 table 5.29 (US GPO 1994) ("1994 Statistics") (fines imposed as sole punishment in only 1 percent of federal fraud cases, 1 percent of federal embezzlement cases, and 7 percent of federal criminal cases overall) (1994 data). A fine is more likely to be used as a supplement to imprisonment, and community service as a supplement to probation, than either is to be used as a substitute for imprisonment. See, for example, Sally T. Hillsman, Joyce L. Sichel, and Barry Mahoney, Fines in Sentencing: A Study of the Use of the Fine as a Criminal Sanction 162-63 (Vera Institute 1984) (fines); Franklin E. Zimring and Gordon Hawkins, The Scale of Imprisonment 183 (Chicago 1991) (community service). Capital punishment is another sparingly used alternative to imprisonment. Indeed, to describe capital punishment as an alternative to imprisonment seems odd. It is a widely shared conviction that capital punishment is appropriate only for a limited number of serious offenses and that it is inappropriate for a wide range of other offenses typically punished by imprisonment. In fact, capital punishment for offenses other than homicide is (for the time being) foreclosed by constitutional doctrine. See Coker v Georgia, 433 US 584, 598 (1977). For these reasons, I will not address capital punishment in this Article. However, the sensibility that some forms of affliction are intrinsically inappropriate for certain types of offenses - a sensibility that is familiar in debates about capital punish
5. See id at table 12 (18 percent of convicted felons fined, 6 percent sentenced to community service); Bureau of Justice Statistics, Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics 464-65 table 5.29 (US GPO 1994) ("1994 Statistics") (fines imposed as sole punishment in only 1 percent of federal fraud cases, 1 percent of federal embezzlement cases, and 7 percent of federal criminal cases overall) (1994 data). A fine is more likely to be used as a supplement to imprisonment, and community service as a supplement to probation, than either is to be used as a substitute for imprisonment. See, for example, Sally T. Hillsman, Joyce L. Sichel, and Barry Mahoney, Fines in Sentencing: A Study of the Use of the Fine as a Criminal Sanction 162-63 (Vera Institute 1984) (fines); Franklin E. Zimring and Gordon Hawkins, The Scale of Imprisonment 183 (Chicago 1991) (community service). Capital punishment is another sparingly used alternative to imprisonment. Indeed, to describe capital punishment as an alternative to imprisonment seems odd. It is a widely shared conviction that capital punishment is appropriate only for a limited number of serious offenses and that it is inappropriate for a wide range of other offenses typically punished by imprisonment. In fact, capital punishment for offenses other than homicide is (for the time being) foreclosed by constitutional doctrine. See Coker v Georgia, 433 US 584, 598 (1977). For these reasons, I will not address capital punishment in this Article. However, the sensibility that some forms of affliction are intrinsically inappropriate for certain types of offenses - a sensibility that is familiar in debates about capital punish
6. See id at table 12 (18 percent of convicted felons fined, 6 percent sentenced to community service); Bureau of Justice Statistics, Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics 464-65 table 5.29 (US GPO 1994) ("1994 Statistics") (fines imposed as sole punishment in only 1 percent of federal fraud cases, 1 percent of federal embezzlement cases, and 7 percent of federal criminal cases overall) (1994 data). A fine is more likely to be used as a supplement to imprisonment, and community service as a supplement to probation, than either is to be used as a substitute for imprisonment. See, for example, Sally T. Hillsman, Joyce L. Sichel, and Barry Mahoney, Fines in Sentencing: A Study of the Use of the Fine as a Criminal Sanction 162-63 (Vera Institute 1984) (fines); Franklin E. Zimring and Gordon Hawkins, The Scale of Imprisonment 183 (Chicago 1991) (community service). Capital punishment is another sparingly used alternative to imprisonment. Indeed, to describe capital punishment as an alternative to imprisonment seems odd. It is a widely shared conviction that capital punishment is appropriate only for a limited number of serious offenses and that it is inappropriate for a wide range of other offenses typically punished by imprisonment. In fact, capital punishment for offenses other than homicide is (for the time being) foreclosed by constitutional doctrine. See Coker v Georgia, 433 US 584, 598 (1977). For these reasons, I will not address capital punishment in this Article. However, the sensibility that some forms of affliction are intrinsically inappropriate for certain types of offenses - a sensibility that is familiar in debates about capital punish