VCE Legal Studies Warmup Questions

Question 1

To what extent do fines achieve two purposes of sanctions? (5 marks)

Answer 1

To a limited extent fines achieve the purposes of rehabilitation and protection. Fines are a monetary value paid as a sanction for minor offences. As a fine does not address underlying issues which cause offenders to break the law, rehabilitation is not achieved by a large extent through fines. A fine may show an offender the errors of their ways and prevent them from reoffending in the future so to a limited extent fines may achieve the purpose of rehabilitation

Question 2

To what extent do fines achieve two purposes of sanctions? (5 marks) part 2

Answer 2

Protection is achieved to a limited extent by fines as the offender may avoid undertaking behaviour which would result in a future fine and would put the community at risk. Therefore if a fine prevents future dangerous, law breaking behaviour the community may be safer and protection may be upheld. Yet fines do not physically prevent offending in the future so protection is not upheld to a large extent as the safety of the community can not be ensured by giving an offender a fine.