Purposes Of Sentencing

Within the criminal justice system, sentencing is a key aspect as it protects the public whilst delivering justice for the victims and defendants (Davies, Croall & Tyrer, 2015). In England and Wales, the purposes of sentencing are; to punish the offender; reduce crime through deterrence; rehabilitate offenders; protect the public and making reparation to the victims of crimes (Bettinson & Dingwall, 2012). When passing a sentence, judges are required to take into account offence seriousness, aggravating factors such as vulnerability of victim and mitigating factors such as whether the defendant showed remorse (Dhami & Belton, 2015). Aggravating factors can increase the severity of the sentence, whilst mitigating factors can decrease the severity

For offences committed in England and Wales, definitive sentencing guidelines have been put in place for the most frequent offences (Roberts, 2012). The key purposes of the sentencing guidelines are to promote consistency in sentencing (Roberts, 2011) and to try and improve the public’s confidence in sentencing (Padfield, 2013). These guidelines outline and guide sentencing practices for various offences, such as assault (Sentencing Council, 2011). Sentencing judges tend to have some discretion as to what sentence to give a defendant because of the sentence ranges provided for specific offences outlined in sentencing guidelines (Merrall, Dhami & Bird, 2010). Additionally, the Sentencing Council has created specific guidelines for issues such as a reduction in sentences for a guilty plea. This guideline outlines how sentencing judges should determine the appropriate reduction for a guilty plea according to the stage the defendant pleaded guilty (Sentencing Council,

The CCSS included sentenced cases in England and Wales Crown Court (Pina-Sanchez & Linacre, 2013). Thus, from the information provided in the CCSS, sentencing decisions can be analysed to see what influences judges take into consideration when sentencing. Over the years sentencing guidelines have been used to promote consistency in sentencing, consistency in sentencing is a key aspect of a fair justice system (Pina-Sanchez & Linacre, 2013). However, the consistency of sentencing has been questioned in recent years, an example of this was the London riots in 2011. As a result of the riots, there was an average of 13.4 months increase in the custodial length of defendants sentenced for offences relating to the riots court compared to similar offences in 2010 (Ministry of Justice, 2012b). Therefore, as sentences were increased immensely because of the riots and without warning, this weakens the idea of legal certainty (Pina-Sánchez, Lightowlers & Roberts, 2016). Such increases in sentencing undermine the view of the justice system being fair. Although it may be that such sentencing practice is needed as a deterrence in large-scale public disorder like the London