The effect of crime characteristics on sentencing

We can regard the punishment as a process which is applied in two different stages; the first one includes the determination of punishment by the legislator and the second one is sentencing by the judges. Determination of punishment in the legislation process logically follows its own philosophical principles and the legislator shall obey those principles. However, it should be realized that in practice are not taken into account as such and the most of time, logical and philosophical purposes are sacrificed by the political debates in the parliamentary process. Although the principle of legality requires the judge to set the punishment as it was determined by the legislator, some principles and rules govern on the sentencing in this stage which in most cases differ from what had been taken into account by the legislator and, of course, are more practical and pragmatic in many aspects. In a wide level, these principles include the principles govern on crime, criminal and victim and each of them has its own effect. However, the base of the sentencing in this area include: the culpability of the criminal and the obscenity of the crime.