S1026-94520000616-5-1

Article

Published

Issue 9

72-84

A broad range of points characterizing punishment in American criminal law is under consideration in this article. In the beginning it is pointed out that changes in the criminal law policy displayed in that the prior purpose ofpunishment becomes retribution, in return to the system of determinate sentences, as well as in adoption of sentencing guidelines. The United States sentencing guidelines enacted in 1987 applicable to individuals, are rather complicated, and were mandatory for judges. In edition in 1991 there were enacted Organizational Guidelines. The application of Guidelines shows the tendency to decreasing of disparity in sentencing and to a more just punishment. Despite of the Supreme Court's decision in United States v Booker (2005) by which the Guidelines lost its mandatory character, courts still show adherence to them. There are under consideration in the article such main punishments as death penalty, imprisonment, probation and fine which sometimes is an alternative to imprisonment as well as restitution and forfeiture (the latter is only touched on because was analysed earlier - Государство и право. 2014. № 10. С. 62), which are supplementary punishments. By the decision of the Supreme Court in Furman v Georgia (1972) death penalty was held unconstitutional and vice versa by its decision in Gregg v. Georgia (1976). In this connection it is pointed out that the Supreme Court carried out a great job to put in good order the application of death penalty in the country. It is a punishment in 36 states and on the federal level mainly for homicide. The article contains statistics about the application of death penalty in the USA in general and proving its racially discriminatury character in particular. It is mentioned that only in 2005 the Supreme Court held that death penalty of minors is unconstitutional. There are two tendencies picked out in the sphere of the application of death penalty. The positive one shows that during 11 years number of sentenced to death penalty is reducing, the negative - that a time of waiting execution becomes longer and longer, in 2011 - on an average 16.5 years. While considering imprisonment it is pointed out the following peculiarities: rather long terms, the rule "three times and you are out”, housing of minor inmates in adult prison facilities and others. The fines also widely applied in the USA are characterized by significant differences in maximum amounts in various jurisdictions, applied according to the formula "fine and (or) imprisonment” they in fact permit the rich to pay off for a committed crime. Restitution is also a kind of property sanction but which in the American criminal law is understood not only as a restoration in a previous (initial) state. This measure is given a significant importance: it is fixed constitutionally, for example in California, not infrequently is a condition of probation. But its maximum size is not always provided by legislation. Probation widely used in the USA, strictly speaking is not a punishment. It is a measure of exerting influence upon a convicted, left at liberty, by means of duty to observe certain conditions ordered by a judge. Probation often is not as effective as it was calculated upon, therefore in some states, for example in Ohio, gave up to apply it in cases of committing felonies.

01.09.2015

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