Public denunciation is very much part of any sentencing and especially in a horrendous matter like child sex abuse. A judge has to say, in sentencing an individual, “You have committed a terrible crime, but there are many factors that I have to consider.” How does one, as a judge, say the sentence should be a very deterrent sentence, but then emphasize public denunciation more and increase that beyond what it should be? A judge can't say that. The fine balancing is necessary here for our traditions and to uphold our rule of law.
In overemphasizing public denunciation, a judge would make an error. No one believes that child sexual abuse should be dealt with lightly. But what about those cases where for an individual offender, the public denunciation is achieved through a lesser than minimum sentence than is proposed in this bill? Why should that offender have to serve a much longer period of time because of an overemphasis on public denunciation? It doesn't make sense from a sentencing point of view. It's unfortunate that public denunciation is overemphasized in some ways. We have to look at every aspect here. Just looking at public denunciation leads to improper sentencing, unfortunately.