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NCJRS Abstract

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NCJ Number: 118525 Find in a Library
Title: Towards Sentencing Guidelines in England (From Criminal Law and Justice: Essays from the W.G. Hart Workshop, 1986, P 237-247, 1987, I H Dennis, ed. -- See NCJ-118520)
Author(s): M Wasik
Date Published: 1987
Page Count: 11
Sponsoring Agency: Sweet and Maxwell
London, NW3 3PF, England
Sale Source: Sweet and Maxwell
Marketing Director
100 Ave. Road
London, NW3 3PF,
United Kingdom
Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
Language: English
Country: United Kingdom
Annotation: Restructuring the English sentencing system in a way that would bring greater overall coherence to a complex set of arrangements could be accomplished through the use of sentencing guidelines based on words rather than the numbers used in the United States.
Abstract: A major reason for the lack of consistency and certainty in British sentencing is the conflict over the aims of sentencing. Guidelines would represent an expression of principled thinking about the hierarchy of offenses and the culpability of offenders. One objection to the use of guidelines is that they would lack the detail that can be derived from appellate decisions. However, the guidelines would provide a foundation for decisionmaking. Although the judiciary would probably resist any effort to curtail their broad discretion over sentencing, guidelines would confine judicial discretion to its proper place. The process of creating guidelines might also be subject to political manipulation, although in the United States politically astute sentencing commission members have been able to handle this problem. Notes.
Main Term(s): Sentencing guidelines
Index Term(s): Great Britain/United Kingdom; Sentencing disparity; Sentencing factors; Sentencing reform; US/foreign comparisons
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