NCJ Number
138990
Date Published
1992
Length
16 pages
Annotation
The 1988 British Criminal Justice Act reclassified certain offenses including common assault, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, criminal damage, and driving while disqualified, as summary offenses, thereby disallowing those defendants from the opportunity to elect for trial at the Crown Court.
Abstract
The legislation resulted in a 5-percent decline in the number of defendants tried at the Crown Court. In magistrates' courts, prosecutions for indictable offenses fell by 9 percent, while those for summary offenses rose by a similar number. About half the reduction in the number of trials resulted from the reclassification of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle; the reduction also affected defendants under the age of 21 more than older defendants. The number of defendants sentenced to immediate custody decreased by 2 percent while the average sentence length for most reclassified offenses fell by 25 percent. This report estimates that reclassification resulted in a 700-person decrease in the prison population. 8 tables and 4 notes