Tímarit lögfræðinga - 01.10.1989, Side 16

but even worse for indeterminate than for determinate prison sen-
tences. All these defects have induced many countries to return to
imprisonment of firm duration. Iceland, like the majority of European
countries, has never introduced the indeterminate imprisonment sen-
tence.
d) There has been a complete change in the evaluation of short-
term imprisonment. At the end of the last century this was the target
of vehement criticism advanced by the German reformer Franz v.
Liszt. He launched the famous appeal for a “crusade against short-
term imprisonment”. This has been widely followed and has led to
quite recent efforts of reform, including those by the Federal Repub-
lic of Germany and Austria. According to predominant opinion the
earlier campaign against short-term imprisonment has been fully justi-
fied, because at that time detention of a few days or weeks was
generally used for all cases, even for quite insignificant petty offences.
It had produced many dissocializing effects, whereas a fine or an alter-
native measure would have been absolutely sufficient to maintain
general prevention. Today short-term imprisonment has changed its
face. It is often applied in specific cases such as driving a motor-car
under the influence of alcohol, economic or environmental criminality
and persistent petty delinquency. In some countries the consequences
of short-term detention detrimental to the prisoner’s position in society
are partly neutralized by modern means of deprivation of liberty such
as weekend detention, fragmented execution, night-imprisonment,
work release and similar measures aiming at the preservation of the
prisoner’s job and at his continued contact with life in free society.
3. Fines. — In a number of countries the fine has become the most
frequent sanction applied in criminal law. The advance of the fine in
criminal policy was mainly a consequence of the already mentioned
wide-spread criticism of short-term imprisonment. From its very
origin in the 19th century as the usual punishment for petty contraven-
tions it has become more and more an influential and important means
of criminal policy, both in legislation and its application. Today, in
the world as a whole two different schemes exist for the legal regula-
tion of the fine.
a) There is first the system of calculating the fine in a lump sum.
Here the total is measured out directly in an amount of money ac-
cording to the importance of the offence and the personal guilt of
the perpetrator, and to his financial situation and earning capacity.
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