CRIMINAL DEFENCE LAWYERS

Posts Tagged ‘Suspended Sentences’

Suspended sentences were reintroduced into the New South Wales legal system in 2000, in order to provide judges with more flexibility during the sentencing process. In introducing the bill, then Attorney General of NSW, Robert John Debus stated that “The primary purpose of suspended sentences is to denote the seriousness of the offence and the consequences of re-offending, whilst at the same time providing [offenders] an opportunity, by good behaviour, to avoid the consequences.” Suspended sentences allow judges and magistrates to impose a sentence of imprisonment on a convicted offender to convey the severity of the offence, but at the same time encourage their rehabilitation. Research by the Australian Institute of Criminology found that suspended sentences were an effective method of deterring and denunciating offenders, with offenders on a wholly suspended sentence having lower reconviction rates than those facing  full-time imprisonment or partially suspended sentences. However, the paper also found that the failure to consistently prosecute breaches of suspended sentences reduced their effectiveness at deterrence, as well as potentially undermining the sentencing option’s legitimacy in the eyes of the wider community. Read the rest of this entry »