NCJ Number
166958
Date Published
1995
Length
23 pages
Annotation
The development of the contemporary sentencing system in England and Wales began with the Criminal Justice Act of 1948 and continued with the Criminal Justice Acts of 1961, 1967, 1988, and 1991.
Abstract
The Criminal Justice Act of 1948 was not a crisis measure; rather, it modernized a body of legislation that had been enacted piecemeal over many years and made a few marginal innovations. The Criminal Justice Act of 1961 encouraged the use of borstal training for offenders under 21 years of age, raised the minimum age for imprisonment from 15 to 17 years, extended the power to order the detention of juveniles guilty of serious offenses, and restricted the power of courts to impose imprisonment on offenders under 21 years of age. The Criminal Justice Act of 1967 dealt with sentencing, committal proceedings, proof of intent in criminal cases, alibi defenses, majority verdicts, legal aid, and other matters. This act introduced the suspended sentence and discretionary parole. The Criminal Justice Act of 1988 focused on custodial and noncustodial sentences, statutory criteria that reduced the use of custody for young offenders, and proportionality between crime and punishment. The Criminal Justice Act of 1991 abolished the extended sentence, restricted discretionary parole to a limited number of cases, and restricted the suspended sentence to cases involving exceptional circumstances. This act established criteria for imposing a custodial sentence and for determining custodial sentence length, rules to govern the imposition of community orders, and the unit fine system. The statutory framework of sentencing reform in England and Wales is examined, and judicial initiatives and parole changes are discussed. 48 footnotes