Abstract

Sentencing is a practical part of a criminal law and it plays an important role in governing the administration of criminal justice and sentencing policy of any criminal justice system. Sentencing is also considered as the most crucial part in a criminal proceeding. Thus in sentencing, a judge must be guided by certain principles, objectives, considerations and guidelines. To ensure the verdict, which is to be passed serves its objective; a judge has to consider various factors that may influence the degree of punishment. Even though there might be several offenders who commit the same type of crime, it does not mean that the judge must impose similar punishment on each of them. There are mitigating and aggravating factors which may be taken into account before giving final judgement so that it is just and equitable. The study on this issue is significant since it is the most common problem faced by judges in making fair and just decision pertaining to the punishment. This paper seeks to look at the practice of the Syariah Court in Malaysia in considering the factors that may influence the degree of punishment to be inflicted on Syariah offenders and to examine the extent of Syariah Court judges’ creativity in exercising their discretionary power in the determination of punishment.