Criminal justice: Sentencing law & practice

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CRIMINAL JUSTICE: SENTENCING LAW & PRACTICE

“Sentencing consists in trying to reconcile a number of totally irreconcilable facts. The judges get very little help in this difficult matter”Lord Lane, Hansard HL, vol 486, col. 1285

The purpose of this essay is to evaluate the validity of the above quote by Lord Lane in light of the current framework.
            The sentencing of a convicted criminal is a difficult job, and often causes public outrage at 'weak' sentencing by the judge (often without reason - the public has not taken in to account mitigating factors, defences, previous convictions etc.)

             
The aims of criminal sentencing have traditionally been said to be retribution, deterrence and rehabilitation. To these there may now perhaps be added: incapacitation (i.e. putting it out of the power of the offender to commit further offences) and the maintenance of public confidence. It is obvious that the different sentences available to the courts serve these purposes in very different measures. For example, a sentence of imprisonment is very largely retributive, punitive, although it will prevent the offender committing further offences while imprisoned and may deter others from offending. A sentence of imprisonment is not usually passed with a view to rehabilitating the offender, even if in a minority of cases it has that effect. By contrast, a hospital order made in a case of a mentally disordered offender is purely rehabilitative; there is no element of retribution or deterrence, and the element of incapacitation is largely incidental. A probation order, similarly, is intended to rehabilitate. A combination order, which places an offender under the supervision of a probation officer and also obliges him to perform a number of hours' community service, is intended both to rehabilitate the offender and also to contain a punitive element, protecting the public from harm caused by the offender and preventing the commission by the offender of further offences. Although easy enough to describe, these purposes of criminal sentencing are less easy to analyse and apply. Retribution is probaly the most difficult.

The present legal framework is contained in various statutes including:

     

- The Criminal Justice Act 1991

- The Crime (Sentences) Act 1997

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- The Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000 and

- The Powers of the Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 (a consolidating

   statute)

Sentencers have guidance on how to sentence in specific circumstances from the Court of Appeal judgments; Court of Appeal Sentencing Guidelines, informed by the Sentencing Advisory Panel, Practice Directions issued by the Lord Chief Justice

The Magistrates’ Association sentencing guidelines which recommend sentence lengths and factors which might aggravate or mitigate the offence.

Work is currently being done in all parts of the UK to bring more consistency in sentencing, but judges remain ...

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