This volume is a thematic collection of essays on sentencing theory by leading writers. The essays fall into three groups. Part I considers the underlying justifications for the imposition of punishment by the State, and examines the relationship between victims, offenders and the State. Part II addresses a number of areas of sentencing policy that have given rise to particular difficulty, such as the sentencing of drug offenders, the rationale for discounting sentences for multiple offenders, the existence of special sentencing for young offenders, and cases where the injury done to the victim is of a different magnitude from what might have been expected. Part III raises various questions about the unequal impact on offenders of different sentencing measures, and examines the extent to which sentences should be adjusted to take account of these different impacts and of broader social inequalities.

• Part I: Foundations of the Power to Punish


• 1: McCormick and Garland: Soverign States and vengeful Victims: the Problem of the Right to Punish


• 2: Gardner: Crime: In Proportion and In Perspective


• 3: Bottoms: Five Puzzles in von Hirsch's Theory of Punishment


• Part II: Troublesome Issues in Sentencing Theory


• 4: Wasik: Crime Seriousness and the Offender-Victim Relationship in Sentencing


• 5: Jarebourg: Why Bulk Discounts in Multiple Offence Sentencing?


• 6: Duff: Dangerousness and Citizenship


• 7: Zedner: Sentencing Young Offenders


• 8: Husak: Desert, Proportionality, and the Seriousness of Drug Offences


• Part III: Relating Theory to Contemporary Punishment Practice


• 9: Hudson: Doing Justice to Difference


• 10: Ashworth and Player: Sentencing, Equal Treatment, and the Impact of Sanctions


• 11: Kleinig: The Hardness of Hard Treatment

Andrew Ashworth is Vinerian Professor of English law at All Souls College, Oxford.
Martin Wasik is Professor of Law at Manchester University.