Easton & Piper: Sentencing and Punishment 2e 
DevelopmentsEaston & Piper: Sentencing and Punishment 2e
Chapter 1
Damian Cronus: a case study
Below is a copy of the case study, given at the end of Chapter 1. After each question we give guidance on how you might answer it:
Damian Cronus, aged 40, has a history of sexual offences against young children over the past 15 years, for which he has served custodial sentences. His favoured methods of gaining access to children include watching them in the school playground, following them home, approaching them in amusement arcades, and befriending them playing on the seafront.
His last conviction was in 1998 and he is shortly to be released. On his release he plans to move back to his former home town of Brighton where he has many friends and hopes to find employment in the area. The police are concerned that he remains a threat to young children.
1. Consider what can be done to protect young children living in the area from this person.
In answering this question select from the range of measures now available to monitor the movements of offenders released into the community and ways of restricting their movements.
You need to consider ways of limiting his access to areas where children might congregate. You would also wish to consider ways in which the police or other bodies might keep track of his movements. Your first reference point would be the Sexual Offences Act 2003, Part II, sections 80-129. Some of the measures here are re-enacted from earlier statutes, but the Act also includes new measures which you may wish to consider.
2. Consider the influence of the following factors on the introduction of the raft of new measures to deal with sex offenders in the 1990s.
a) Political factors
Here you could consider whether the Government of the time was under pressure from MPs and their constituents, and from major interest groups concerned with child protection, or other groups anxious to ensure greater protection for the public from sex offenders, particularly those who offend against children. What were the political advantages to the Government of giving priority in its legislative programme to managing the risks from sex offenders?
b) Economic factors
Was cost a significant factor in the formulation of new measures? How were the costs of the registration scheme limited? Do you think that costs should be given a high priority when dealing with matters concerning public safety? Are there any cheaper measures which might be used to monitor offenders' movements?
c) Public opinion
How is public opinion on issues such as crime and punishment usually measured? Here you might wish to consider the findings of the British Crime Survey. What does research tell us about public attitudes towards sex offenders? How significant was public opinion in influencing the government to introduce the new measures? What problems does the Government face in taking account of public opinion? Was the public satisfied by the measures implemented? Should the public be given a greater say in influencing policies on sex offenders?
d) Penological theories
Do the new measures contain a punitive element or are they merely administrative? Do they incorporate any elements of the key justifications of punishment, such as retribution, incapacitation or deterrence? You may wish to reconsider this question after reading Chapters 2, 3, 4 and 5. Do the new measures reflect the New Penology?
3. Consider the impact of these new measures on the sex offender released into the community. Do the measures you identify treat the sex offender with humanity and justice? Do they respect the ex-offender's human rights? Do they treat sex offenders as a special category and if so, is this special treatment justified?
In approaching this question you may want to consider the implications for the right to privacy, protected by Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights or for the Article 7 prohibition on retrospective punishment. You may also wish to consider the issue of equality between offenders and rights such as the presumption of innocence. Do the special risks of harm arising from sex offences justify special treatment? Does it make sense to draw a sharp distinction between sex offenders and other offenders? Should those who commit offences against children be treated as a special category? Is it significant that the relevant Orders in the 2003 Criminal Justice Act are civil orders?
4. Are you satisfied that the measures you have discussed are adequate to protect children in the local area? If not, what further measures might be introduced and what problems might they raise?
Here you might want to consider further possible measures such as use of curfews and satellite tracking, housing ex-offenders in hostels or supervision centres, or the use of protective sentencing. You may wish to consider the human rights implications here, as well as questions of cost. The difficulty of predicting which offenders are a threat could also be discussed. You might consider the possibility of community notification, its advantages and disadvantages, perhaps referring to the experience of Megan's law in the United States? You may also wish to consider the arguments for and against preventive detention for dangerous sex offenders, perhaps revisiting this question after you have read Chapter 5.
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