Sentencing range
The span of sentences courts have imposed for similar offences and offenders, used as a guideline rather than a binding rule in Canadian sentencing.
A sentencing range is the span of sentences that appellate and trial courts have typically imposed for a particular offence committed in similar circumstances by similar offenders. Ranges emerge from the case law as an expression of the parity principle, the idea that like cases should be treated alike, and they give effect to the purposes and principles of sentencing codified in s. 718 of the Criminal Code.
Ranges are guidelines, not straitjackets: Canadian sentencing is highly individualized, anchored by the fundamental principle of proportionality to the gravity of the offence and the offender's degree of responsibility, and a judge may impose a sentence outside the usual range where the circumstances warrant it. In practice, counsel on both sides research comparable sentencing decisions to anchor their positions, making sentencing-range research one of the most common case-law tasks in criminal practice.