Charlie Sheen’s legal slap on the wrist in the domestic violence case against wife Brooke Mueller has caused passionate responses from both the public and legal experts.

But the laughably lenient sentence that sends Sheen to rehab instead of jail is not unusual, according to domestic violence experts.

The Two And A Half Men star pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault in an Aspen, Colorado courtroom and was ordered to spend 30 days in a Malibu rehabilitation center, Breaking Celebrity News reported on Monday. The other charges - felony menacing and a criminal mischief misdemeanor - were dismissed.

“The sad reality is that it’s not a light sentence,” Brian Namey, a spokesperson for the National Network To End Domestic Violence, told Breaking Celebrity News. “In most cases, judges will send perpetrators away with a mere slap on the wrist and those perpetrators aren’t ordered to serve time in jail, rehabilitation or batterers intervention programs.”

Charlie Sheen Pleads Guilty To Misdemeanor Assualt, Ordered To Go To Rehab