Exploring Sentencing Practice in England and Wales

How are offenders sentenced in England and Wales? This is the first volume to analyse the empirical and normative aspects of sentencing, exploring a range of important issues including the role of previous convictions, sentencing female offenders, offender remorse and the sentencing in cases of multiple crimes. This unique collection reveals how courts in this jurisdiction sentence offenders, providing a portrait of practices in the magistrates and Crown courts from 1996 to the present day.

With expert contributions from scholars in criminal justice and law, this authoritative account presents the latest data trends relating to sentencing, as well as conclusions for policy and practice.

Julian V. Roberts is a Professor of Criminology at the University of Oxford, UK. He has been conducting research, teaching and publishing on the subject of sentencing since 1982. He is the author of Punishing Persistent Offenders (2008) and has been a Visiting Professor at Haifa Law School, University of Cambridge, and Catholic University in Leuven.

Foreword; Paul Wiles
1. Sentencing Research and Sentencing Statistics; Julian V. Roberts and Mike Hough
2. Understanding Sentencing: Approaches to Research; Mandeep Dhami and Ian Belton
3. Overview of Sentencing Patterns and Historical Trends in Sentencing; Julian Roberts and Keir Rogers
4. Public Knowledge of Sentencing Practices; Martina Feilzer
5. Consistency in England and Wales: New Findings from the CCSS; J. Pina-Sánchez
6. Sentencing Female Offenders; Carol Hedderman and Rebecca Barnes
7. Women and Sentencing; Loraine Gelsthorpe and Gillian Sharpe
8. Sentencing and Dependents: Motherhood as Mitigation; Shona Minson
9. The Role of Previous Convictions at Sentencing; Julian Roberts and J. Pina-Sánchez
10. More than a Single Crime: Sentencing for Multiple Offences; Natalia Vibla
11. Mitigating Factors at Sentencing; Hannah Maslen
12. Sentencing for Burglary; Keir Irwin Rogers and Thomas W. Perry
13. Sentencing Murder: Lessons from Empirical Research; Barry Mitchell and Julian Roberts
14. Sentencing Young Offenders and Young Adults; Max Lowenstein