Exploring the Impact of Sentencing Factors on Sentencing Domestic Burglary

The role of character‐based personal mitigation in sentencing judgments

“…The three character-based PMFs were all found to have a significant mitigating effect in both assault and burglary cases. These findings are consistent with past studies showing that these two PMFs have an impact on the sentencing of violent (e.g., Brunton-Smith et al, 2020;Flood-Page & Mackie, 1998;Jacobson & Hough, 2007;Maslen, 2015;Pina-S anchez & Linacre, 2013) and property offenses (e.g., Irwin-Rogers & Perry, 2015;Pina-S anchez and Harris (2020);Sentencing Council, 2015).…”

“…Crown Court Sentencing Survey (CCSS; Irwin-Rogers & Perry, 2015;Maslen, 2015;Pina-S anchez & Linacre, 2013;Sentencing Council, 2015). 3 The different approaches have their strengths and limitations when studying sentencing (see .…”

“…It is important to understand whether PMFs are treated differently when they co-occur than when they occur in isolation, since two or more PMFs are often present in a case. In addition, all three studies were limited to a single category of offense (or single offense i.e., Irwin-Rogers & Perry, 2015), thus preventing any comparison between offense categories. Comparisons between different offense categories such as violent and property crime can provide insights into how and why certain character-based PMFs may play a role in sentencing.…”

“…These studies suggest that good character, remorse and addressing addiction are considered to be important mitigating factors in sentencing. More recent work has involved statistical analyses of sentencing data collected by the Sentencing Council for England and Wales from large samples of Crown Courts using the Crown Court Sentencing Survey (CCSS; Irwin‐Rogers & Perry, 2015; Maslen, 2015; Pina‐Sánchez & Linacre, 2013; Sentencing Council, 2015). The different approaches have their strengths and limitations when studying sentencing (see Dhami & Belton, 2015, 2016, 2017).…”

The Evolution of Sentencing Policy and Practice in England and Wales, 2003–2015

“…The data have been used by the Sentencing Council to develop and revise its guidelines and also to discharge its various statutory duties (Sentencing Council 2015b). Since the release of data to the public domain, the survey has been exploited by academic researchers (e.g., Raine and Dunstan 2009;Pina-Sanchez and Linacre 2013;Roberts 2013;Roberts and Pina-Sanchez 2014;Irwin-Rogers and Perry 2015;Maslen 2015). 41 The Sentencing Council's survey provided unique insight into sentencing practices and goes far beyond merely documenting the extent to which courts comply with the council's guidelines.…”