For defendants who are convicted of a crime (whether because they entered a plea of guilty or because they were found guilty after trial), a sentencing procedure will take place. A sentence is a defendant’s punishment for the crime of which s/he is convicted.

After a trial in which the judge or jury found the defendant guilty, the defendant’s sentence will be determined by the judge who presided over the case.

Defendants who entered a guilty plea in the pre-trial phase either agreed to the terms of the sentence negotiated at that time or agreed to the permissible range of sanctions from which the judge could impose a sentence.

Each crime has a corresponding range of permissible sentences. The sentence parameters for any given crime are governed by the laws in that jurisdiction. Sentences can range from successful completion of a program, payment of a fine and/or restitution, to supervision like probation or jail/prison time. Sentences can also involve a combination of conditions. Consult your agency’s state-specific supplemental guide for permissible sentences under sexual assault laws in your jurisdiction. Various types of sentences/offender supervision are explored in the next pages.

At the time a defendant is sentenced, whether it was a negotiated sentence or not, victims have the right to make a victim impact statement. Victims can submit a written statement to the court, speak at the sentencing themselves, have their chosen representative give their statement, or a combination thereof. The victim impact statement is the victims’ opportunity to express to the court, and their perpetrator, the impact the sexual assault has had on the victim’s life. Victim impact statements are explained in greater detail in Module 3.