Punishing a recidivist

Abstract

The punishment of repeat offenders should in principle be harsher than the punishment of first-time offenders. However it is the opinion of the writer that this asymmetry is obviously just a rough structure. It leaves a lot of room for interpretation.

I shall be treating the topic under examination from three dimensions. I shall first start with a brief outline on the general importance of punishment in Criminal Law. Then, I shall proceed to explain the definition of recidivism and the way it is dealt with in our Criminal Code. Finally, I will touch on the fact as to whether our local courts have any restrictions on sentencing a recidivist in other words if there are any types of punishments that cannot be meted out to recidivists, in particular the applicability of the suspended sentence.