When the court find a defendant guilty of usually a first time offence but they wont hand down a criminal conviction, so they receive a discharge.
There are 2 types of discharge?
Conditional - the offender wont be punished unless they commit another offence, leading to a criminal record
Unconditional - No penalty is imposed, the court grant absolute discharge usually if they're morally blameless.
Do discharges meet deterrence aims?
There is a low rate of reoffending following a discharge as in unconditional discharges they're morally blameless and a conditional is a warning for a worse punishment.
