Sentencing and Criminal Justice (Law in Context)

504 Pages·2010·4.25 MB·English

by  Andrew Ashworth

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Sentencing and Criminal Justice
Taking into account the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 and the
CoronersandJusticeAct2009,thisoverviewofthekeyissuesinEnglishsentencing
policy and practice provides unrivalled coverage ofone of the most high-profile
stagesinthecriminaljusticeprocess.
Thisfiftheditionlookscriticallyatthemachineryforproducingsentencing
guidelines,theCourtofAppeal’sapproachtothecustodythreshold,theframe-
work for the sentencing of young offenders and the abiding problems of
previous convictions in sentencing. Andrew Ashworth takes into account
criminologicalresearch,statisticaltrendsandtheoriesofpunishment,offering
clearexplanationsoftherelationshipsbetweenlegislation,guidelinesandcourt
decisions. He skilfully providesa rounded view of therelevant principlesand
problemsofsentencingandcriminaljustice.
Andrew Ashworth is Vinerian Professor of English Law in the University of
Oxford. He was a Member of the Sentencing Advisory Panel from 1999 to
2009,andchairmanfrom2007to2009.

TheLawinContextSeries
Editors:WilliamTwining(UniversityCollegeLondon),
ChristopherMcCrudden(LincolnCollege,Oxford)and
BronwenMorgan(UniversityofBristol).
Since 1970 the Law in Context series has been in the forefront of the movement to
broadenthestudyoflaw.Ithasbeenavehicleforthepublicationofinnovativescholarly
booksthattreatlawandlegalphenomenacriticallyintheirsocial,politicalandeconomic
contextsfromavarietyofperspectives.Theseriesparticularlyaimstopublishscholarly
legal writing that brings fresh perspectives to bear on new and existing areas of law
taught in universities. A contextual approach involves treating legal subjects broadly,
usingmaterialsfromothersocialsciences,andfromanyotherdisciplinethathelpsto
explaintheoperationinpracticeofthesubjectunderdiscussion.Itishopedthatthis
orientationisatoncemorestimulatingandmorerealisticthanthebareexpositionof
legal rules. The series includes original books that have a different emphasis from
traditionallegaltextbooks,whilemaintainingthesamehighstandardsofscholarship.
Theyarewrittenprimarilyforundergraduateandgraduatestudentsoflawandofother
disciplines,butmostalsoappealtoawiderreadership.Inthepast,mostbooksinthe
serieshavefocusedonEnglishlaw,butrecentpublicationsincludebooksonEuropean
law,globalization,transnationallegalprocesses,andcomparativelaw.
BooksintheSeries
Anderson,Schum&Twining:AnalysisofEvidence
Ashworth:SentencingandCriminalJustice
Barton&Douglas:LawandParenthood
Beecher-Monas:EvaluatingScientificEvidence:AnInterdisciplinaryFrameworkfor

IntellectualDueProcess
Bell:FrenchLegalCultures
Bercusson:EuropeanLabourLaw
Birkinshaw:EuropeanPublicLaw
Birkinshaw:FreedomofInformation:TheLaw,thePracticeandtheIdeal
Cane:Atiyah’sAccidents,CompensationandtheLaw
Clarke&Kohler:PropertyLaw:CommentaryandMaterials
Collins:TheLawofContract
Cranston:LegalFoundationsoftheWelfareState
Dauvergne:MakingPeopleIllegal:WhatGlobalisationMeansforMigrationandLaw
Davies:PerspectivesonLabourLaw
Dembour:WhoBelievesinHumanRights?:ReflectionsontheEuropeanConvention
deSousaSantos:TowardaNewLegalCommonSense
Diduck:Law’sFamilies
Fortin:Children’sRightsandtheDevelopingLaw
Glover-Thomas:ReconstructingMentalHealthLawandPolicy
Gobert&Punch:RethinkingCorporateCrime
Goldman:GlobalisationandtheWesternLegalTradition:RecurringPatterns
ofLawandAuthority
Harlow&Rawlings:LawandAdministration
Harris:AnIntroductiontoLaw
Harris,Campbell&Halson:RemediesinContractandTort
Harvey:SeekingAsylumintheUK:ProblemsandProspects
Hervey&McHale:HealthLawandtheEuropeanUnion
Holder&Lee:EnvironmentalProtection,LawandPolicy
Kostakopoulou:TheFutureGovernanceofCitizenship
Lacey,Wells&Quick:ReconstructingCriminalLaw
Lewis:ChoiceandtheLegalOrder:RisingabovePolitics
Likosky:TransnationalLegalProcesses
Likosky:Law,InfrastructureandHumanRights
Maughan&Webb:LawyeringSkillsandtheLegalProcess
McGlynn:FamiliesandtheEuropeanUnion:Law,PoliticsandPluralism
Moffat:TrustsLaw:TextandMaterials
Monti:ECCompetitionLaw
Morgan&Yeung:AnIntroductiontoLawandRegulation:TextandMaterials
Norrie:Crime,ReasonandHistory
O’Dair:LegalEthics
Oliver:CommonValuesandthePublic–PrivateDivide
Oliver&Drewry:TheLawandParliament
Picciotto:InternationalBusinessTaxation
Reed:InternetLaw:TextandMaterials
Richardson:Law,ProcessandCustody
Roberts&Palmer:DisputeProcesses:ADRandthePrimaryForms
ofDecision-Making
Scott&Black:Cranston’sConsumersandtheLaw
Seneviratne:Ombudsmen:PublicServicesandAdministrativeJustice
Stapleton:ProductLiability
Tamanaha:Lawas aMeanstoanEnd:ThreattotheRuleofLaw
Turpin&Tomkins:BritishGovernmentandtheConstitution:TextandMaterials
Twining:GlobalisationandLegalTheory
Twining:RethinkingEvidence
Twining:GeneralJurisprudence:UnderstandingLawfromaGlobalPerspective
Twining:HumanRights,SouthernVoices:FrancisDeng,AbdullahiAn-Na’im,
YashGhaiandUpendraBaxi
Twining&Miers:HowtoDoThingswithRules
Ward:ACriticalIntroductiontoEuropeanLaw
Ward:Law,Text,Terror
Ward:ShakespeareandLegalImagination
Zander:CasesandMaterialsontheEnglishLegalSystem
Zander:TheLaw-MakingProcess
Sentencing and Criminal Justice
Fifth edition
ANDREW ASHWORTH
VinerianProfessorofEnglishLaw,UniversityofOxford
CAMBRIDGEUNIVERSITYPRESS
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Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK
Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521765121
© Andrew Ashworth 2010
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the
provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part
may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published in print format 2010
ISBN-13 978-0-511-68380-0 eBook (Dawsonera)
ISBN-13 978-0-521-76512-1 Hardback
ISBN-13 978-0-521-74875-9 Paperback

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of urls for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication,
and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain,
accurate or appropriate.
Contents
Preface page xi
Tableoflegislativemeasures xiii
Tableofcases xxi
1 AnintroductiontoEnglishsentencing 1
1.1 Courtsandcrimes 1
1.2 Theavailablesentences 3
1.3 Thegeneralstatisticalbackground 8
1.4 Thecriminalprocess 15
1.5 Theformalsourcesofsentencingdecisions 24
1.6 Informalinfluencesonsentencingpractice 41
2 Sentencingandtheconstitution 51
2.1 Theseparationofpowersinsentencing 51
2.2 TheSentencingAdvisoryPanel,theSentencing
GuidelinesCouncilandtheSentencingCouncil 55

2.3 Constitutionalaspectsofthestruggleover
sentencingpolicy 61
2.4 TheJudicialStudiesBoard 64
2.5 Thepositionofthemagistracy 65
2.6 EuropeanUnionlaw 67
2.7 Europeanhumanrightslaw 68
2.8 Conclusions 70
3 Sentencingaims,principlesandpolicies 71
3.1 Theaimsofthecriminaljusticesystem 71
3.2 Justifyingstatepunishment 74
3.3 Therationalesofsentencing 76
3.4 Someprinciplesandpolicies 95
3.5 SentencingrationalesandEnglish
criminaljustice 100
viii Contents
4 Elementsofproportionality 104
4.1 Theproportionalityprinciple 104
4.2 Opinionsaboutoffence-seriousness 106
4.3 Developingparametersofordinalproportionality 108
4.4 Offence-seriousnessinpractice 115
4.5 Individualculpability 148
4.6 Proportionalityandoffence-seriousness 151
5 Aggravationandmitigation 156
5.1 Somepreliminaryproblemsofprinciple 156
5.2 Aggravationasincreasedseriousness 158
5.3 Mitigationasdiminishedseriousness 168
5.4 Personalmitigation 170
5.5 Mitigationandaggravationinpractice 188
5.6 Aggravationandmitigationintheory 191
6 Persistence,preventionandprediction 195
6.1 Historicalintroduction 195
6.2 Fourapproachestopunishingpersistence 197
6.3 PreviousconvictionsandtheCriminalJustice
Act2003 206
6.4 Theproblemof‘professional’criminals 219
6.5 Persistentpettyoffenders 220
6.6 Civilpreventiveorders:theASBO 221
6.7 Minimumsentencesandselectiveincapacitation 224
6.8 ‘Dangerousoffenders’andthe2003Act 228
6.9 Conclusion 238
7 Equalitybeforethelaw 239
7.1 Theprincipleanditschallengers 239
7.2 Race 241
7.3 Gender 245
7.4 Employmentstatus 249
7.5 Financialcircumstances 251
7.6 Socialstatus 254
7.7 Equality,parsimonyandrisk 255
8 Multipleoffenders 260
8.1 Chargingthemultipleoffender 261
8.2 Concurrentorconsecutive? 263
8.3 Effectofthestatutoryprinciple 269