The Legislature for the state of Florida will convene to discuss a bill to double the maximum prison term for persons convicted of armed robbery. The FBI 's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program defines robbery as "the taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force or threat of force or violence and by putting the victim in fear."(www.fbi.gov). Aggravated robbery is a serious crime of theft, resulting in psychological and physical injuries to victims. As the Criminologist advisor to one of the representatives who will hear the merits of the bill and vote to implement or discard this statement, the following are my recommendations:
Objectives of the bill
The objective of the bill is to serve as a deterrent to the crime. The authors of the bill are seeking to make the punishment for the crime such that criminals would fear the punishment much more than the spoils of the offense. The prison experience is already harsh, doubling the sentence is hoped to dissuade would-be offenders from committing such crimes and …show more content…
It does not serve the best interest of the public or the justice system at large. Passing this law could be viewed as cruel and unusual punishment as defined by the 8th amendment of the United States Constitution. The law prohibits punishment and offers protection against cruel and unusual punishment, which is a penalty that is too severe for the crime committed. Doubling the sentence would e a deviation from past longstanding practices. Professor Bryan A. Stevenson Professor of Clinical Law at the New York University School of Law, and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative wrote in an essay on the 8th amendment "If a punishment is significantly harsher than punishments traditionally given for the same or similar crimes, it is cruel and unusual, even though the same sentence might be acceptable for other offenses."
Objectives of the bill
The objective of the bill is to serve as a deterrent to the crime. The authors of the bill are seeking to make the punishment for the crime such that criminals would fear the punishment much more than the spoils of the offense. The prison experience is already harsh, doubling the sentence is hoped to dissuade would-be offenders from committing such crimes and …show more content…
It does not serve the best interest of the public or the justice system at large. Passing this law could be viewed as cruel and unusual punishment as defined by the 8th amendment of the United States Constitution. The law prohibits punishment and offers protection against cruel and unusual punishment, which is a penalty that is too severe for the crime committed. Doubling the sentence would e a deviation from past longstanding practices. Professor Bryan A. Stevenson Professor of Clinical Law at the New York University School of Law, and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative wrote in an essay on the 8th amendment "If a punishment is significantly harsher than punishments traditionally given for the same or similar crimes, it is cruel and unusual, even though the same sentence might be acceptable for other offenses."