Introduction

A pecuniary sanction is a widespread criminal penalty and it is hard to think of a jurisdiction that does not have some form of such punishment. The most common pecuniary penalty is undoubtedly the fine. However, when we think about fines, we normally think about the most standard model where the size of the fine mainly depends on the severity of the offence. We refer to those fines as fixed fines, even though they might have other names in different criminal justice systems (for example summary fines, lump sum fines). A common feature of this type of fines is that the financial state of the offender does not play a systematic role in its calculation. This is not to say that the financial information is completely irrelevant. Some jurisdictions require accounting for the offender’s income or wealth and more particularly his or her capacity to pay the fine when deciding on its size. However, there is no requirement to account for it systematically and usually there are no guidelines on how the financial capacity should be considered.