* Concurrent – is when a punishment is served at the same time as another punishment. For example, if an offender receives a term of 2 years imprisonment for one offence and another 2 years imprisonment (concurrent) for a second offence, then that equates to a total of 2 years imprisonment to cover both offences.
* Cumulative – is when a punishment is served on top of another punishment. For example, if an offender receives a term of 2 years imprisonment for one offence and another 2 years imprisonment (cumulative) for a second offence, then that equates to a total of 4 years imprisonment to cover both offences.
* Parity – when more than one offender is charged with the same offence (known as co-offenders), they should receive the same punishment unless they are distinguishable from each other in some way (such as by the particular role they played in the offence or by their criminal records).
* Totality -when an offender is imprisoned for multiple offences, the total sentence must not exceed the overall criminality or be crushing. It is not just a case of adding up all the terms of imprisonment because that could result in a very long and excessive sentence. Some of the terms may have to be made concurrent to reduce the total sentence to a fair length in the circumstances.
