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is a feature of the sanction, placed much stronger emphasis upon the special deterrent
effect of the suspended sentence. If the sanction is a judge made disposition, as it is in
Ireland, the views of the sentencers on this point are critical to discern the real purpose of
the sanction. As noted, even in jurisdictions such as England and Wales and Victoria where
the suspended sentence is specifically designed as an alternative to the custodial sentence,
the judges invariably gravitate towards the use of the sanction as a special deterrent only.
Judicial departure from a statutory policy to utilise the suspended sentence only as an
alternative to the custodial sentence has a two-fold negative effect. Firstly, a significant
number of offenders are uplifted into a category of sanction which is potentially more
punitive and secondly the courts tend to apply a greater penalty than would be the case
because the sentence is to be suspended.
Although O’Malleyhas categorised the suspended sentence in Irelandas a dual punishment
which encompasses both the custodial sentence albeit unserved and the risk of having to
endure the period of suspension, it could be argued that observing the laws and keeping
the peace is an obligation placed upon all citizens whether criminal or law-abiding. This
calls into question whether the suspended sentence is punishment at all or punishment
enough. Perhaps it is more appropriate to regard the suspended sentence as a punishment
which is essentiallyresidual and contingent but which maynever and usuallyis not invoked
despite manifest breaches. In this interpretation of the sanction, the deterrent function
emerges as the primary contender for the use of the sanction and the judges in the
interviews confirm this view. Thus the sanction at a formal level presents as a custodial
sentence which is avoided by its conditional suspension, but deterrence is the sub rosa
purpose of the sanction. It is unlikely that judges would ever invest the sanction with a
purpose other than that for which they believe it should be used. The experience in other
jurisdictions confirms this tendency even where the use of the sanction is much more
prescriptive.
A certain ambiguity persists in the purpose for which the suspended sentence is used in
Ireland. This has allowed for the deployment of the sanction for a wide array of offences
across of all of the criminal jurisdictions which deal with the most minor to the most
serious of offences. The suspended sentence, which remains hidden to a large extent in
official statistics under the category of custodial sentences, was revealed in this study to be
used extensivelyin all criminal jurisdictions. Could it be that most or all of these suspended
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