Asked about the «fair sentence» for four types of criminal offences (traffic offence, burglary, rape and money embezzlement), a large proportion (48.4 %) of a representative sample of the Swiss population advocates, in at least one of the four cases, to pronounce only an alternative sanction – that is to say, not provided for by the criminal code. Based on this finding, we first describe the types of alternative sanctions suggested for each offence. Then, we examine the profile of the respondents who opted for these alternative sanctions. The alternative sanctions proposed are heterogeneous regarding the purpose and the harshness of the sentence. Thus refusing a traditional sentence does not inform in any way about the form of justice advocated instead or its degree of harshness. Moreover, this enthusiasm for alternative sanctions reveals a critique of the contemporary penal system and a claim for an alternative penal model. This model – illustrated by the rise of restorative justice at the international level – offers a more horizontal and individualised justice that takes victims more into account. But it also takes a step towards potentially longer and more restrictive sanctions.