The consequences for committing a criminal offence extend well past the sentence imposed on the criminal by the court. Besides the formal penalty, "collateral consequences", which arise as a side effect of being convicted and punished, are more than likely to ensue, without this having been formally sanctioned by the court.

It is not difficult to imagine some possible negative consequences that a conviction may result in. Some common examples include:

• Divorce or rejection by one’s family

• Physical or sexual assault while in prison

• Loss of one’s property from failure to pay mortgage and property taxes

• Problems with reintegration in society after release

Depending on the case, therefore, the collateral consequences of a person’s crime may be more severe than the actual sentence. An instance in which this was undoubtedly so was the 2001 court-martial of Commodore Eric Lerhe. At the time, Lerhe was the commander of the Pacific Fleet of the Canadian Navy, when a serviceman under his command was charged with misusing his Canadian Forces computer. Faced with the possibility of having to be the officer presiding over the court-martial, Lehre felt guilty as he himself had used his issue computer to view soft pornography (admittedly, on his own time and with his personal internet account). He therefore admitted this to his superior and, rather than being let off with a warning for his honesty about a minor offence, was promptly relieved of his command and then court-martialled. In the end, Lehre was fined $200 and his command was restored. But when one considers that the story made national headlines and that he must have had some explaining to do to his wife, on top of all he had to go through with his trial, it would seem that the collateral consequences far outweighed the sentence.

Many consequences arise as a result of having a criminal record. At any time after a person has served their sentence, a criminal record check may be required in order to participate in many activities, such as:

• Volunteer work, particularly with children, the elderly and disabled people.

• A whole range of job opportunities, including government, security, and other, depending on the field and the policy of the employer

• Adoption

• International travel (e.g. crossing the border to the United States or Canada)

A clean criminal record will often be essential for any of these.

At least it may eventually be possible to mitigate this kind of collateral consequence. For instance, in Canada, an ex-convict may generally apply for a pardon after their sentence has been served and they have spent a period of time re-integrating into society. The effect of the pardon is that the criminal record can no longer be disclosed during a criminal record check. The pardon will have no bearing on the legality of travel to the United States; for this, a non-American with a criminal record has to obtain a US criminal waiver from the US Department of Homeland Security; not doing so can result in being arrested at the border. Both Canadian pardons and US entry waivers have strict conditions imposed on obtaining them: a pardon cannot be granted until 3 to 10 years of an honest life have passed from the completion of a sentence; a US criminal waiver is only granted with a 1- to 5-year validity; after that, it must be renewed for continued validity. The bureaucratic procedures for obtaining a pardon or a US criminal waiver are time-consuming and require a lot of paperwork – collateral consequences in their own right.