What do judges mean when they sentence to protect the safety of the community?
Date
2021
Authors
Livings, B.
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Journal article
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Current Issues in Criminal Justice, 2021; 33(2):247-263
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Abstract
Community protection sits at the heart of the Sentencing Act 2017(SA), as the ‘primary purpose’ and ‘paramount consideration’ of sentencing, but the legislation provides no guidance as to what this actually means for the sentencing calculation. The present study draws on a sample of sentencing remarks in order to understand the way in which the primary purpose has been construed and whether it marks a significant departure from proportionality as the central organising principle of sentencing in South Australia. The study finds that protecting the safety of the community is referred to in less than half of the cases in the sample. In those cases in which it is cited, community protection is almost always linked to either or both deterrence and rehabilitation and is used in a way that is compatible with proportionality.
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Copyright 2020 Sydney Institute of Criminology