Stephanie R. Bontrager Boeken

Exploring the complexities of criminal sanctions, the book examines the various forms of punishment, including death, imprisonment, and community supervision, highlighting their impact on individual freedoms. It focuses on a unique Florida law that allows judges to withhold adjudication for felony offenders on probation, enabling them to avoid the lifelong label of "convicted felon" and retain essential rights. The investigation delves into the social and individual factors influencing this discretion, framed within the context of social control and societal perceptions of threat.

There is a wide range of sanctions used by the criminal justice system to punish criminal offenders including death, imprisonment and community supervision. All of these sanctions involve a social institution exerting direct social control over an individual either through loss of life or liberty or via constant supervision. And even after a prison sentence or community supervision term has ended there are continuing penalties, for while a prison term may be completed the label of “convicted felon” last a lifetime. A unique Florida law affords judges the discretion to withhold adjudication for felony offenders sentenced to probation. This sentencing option allows offenders to avoid the label of “convicted felon” and retain all rights normally lost upon felony conviction within the state of Florida, including the right to vote and carry fire arms. This book investigates the individual and social contingencies which impact the withholding of adjudication from a social threat and social control perspective.