Research and public policy series
No. 59: Sentencing the multiple offender : judicial practice and legal principle
Austin Lovegrove
ISBN 0 642 53849 2 ; ISSN 1326-6004
Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology: 2004
$22.00 (including GST), soft cover. (plus postage and handling)
Criminology Research Council grant (7/98-99)
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Abstract
This study examines the approach of Victorian judges to the determination of sentence for an offender convicted of multiple offences. Given that a substantial percentage of criminal cases involve a multiple offender and that the majority of offences are committed by repeat offenders, the sentencing of such offenders is a matter of significant public policy interest. The study is based on qualitative interviews with a group of Victorian County Court judges, an analysis of sentencing data on rape, armed robbery and burglary from Victorian County Court records, and a legal review of High Court decisions and Victorian Court of Appeal decisions. The study examines the way judges apply the totality principle in sentencing multiple offenders; whether sentences imposed these cases conform to the principle of proportionality; and whether proportionality, in respect to the multiple offender, can be expressed as a detailed policy, with associated guidelines. The empirical work undertaken in this study indicates that there is a need to develop a more detailed and comprehensive set of sentencing principles and an associated numerical framework for guidance.
Contents
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- List of figures and tables
- Executive summary
- Introduction
- Part 1: The totality principle in practice
- Part 2: Proportionality in principle and practice
- Part 3: The totality principle
- Part 4: Principled numerical guidance
- Cases cited
- References