This is the latest guideline on sentencing for robbery. (It's a pdf).
It is academic as far as I am concerned, because robbery is an offence that we cannot deal with - cases must be sent to the Crown Court.
These guidelines have already been misrepresented in the press, and that is really an insult to the highly experienced and qualified members of the Council.
If you have nothing better to do, have a look at the guidelines. They seem about right to me.
Sunday, July 30, 2006
It's Not Just Policemen Who Seem To Be Getting Younger
I don't sit in the Youth Court, preferring as I do to deal with the more-or-less grown up malefactors who come before us. Because the Youth Court does not sit every day adult courts are sometimes faced with a young person who has been arrested. Normal practice is to decide on bail and then remand the offender to the next sitting of the Youth Court. There are different rules of bail for those under 18, and for young kids we may only remand to the care of the local authority - who often hand the child straight back to the parents (or, more likely, parent).
One day we were faced with a boy of 12, who looked like one of Fagin's gang from 'Oliver'. He had been arrested trying to break into a car in the small hours of the morning, despite the fact that he was already on bail for other offences, and was subject to a curfew. His mother, a lady of Hogarthian appearance, had gone out drinking with friends at 11 a.m. leaving the boy alone: on her return home at 10.30 p.m. she found that he had, unsurprisingly, gone out. The police returned him home towards dawn.
We had a look at his previous and he had a record going back to the age of 10 for theft, burglary, assault and suchlike. He was under intensive supervision from the Young Offender Team, but dedicated and professional as these are, they cannot overcome such appalling parenting as this boy has received.
Do I have the answer? Of course not, but I do take my hat off to the underpaid and under-appreciated workers who try to put kids like this onto the straight and narrow.
One day we were faced with a boy of 12, who looked like one of Fagin's gang from 'Oliver'. He had been arrested trying to break into a car in the small hours of the morning, despite the fact that he was already on bail for other offences, and was subject to a curfew. His mother, a lady of Hogarthian appearance, had gone out drinking with friends at 11 a.m. leaving the boy alone: on her return home at 10.30 p.m. she found that he had, unsurprisingly, gone out. The police returned him home towards dawn.
We had a look at his previous and he had a record going back to the age of 10 for theft, burglary, assault and suchlike. He was under intensive supervision from the Young Offender Team, but dedicated and professional as these are, they cannot overcome such appalling parenting as this boy has received.
Do I have the answer? Of course not, but I do take my hat off to the underpaid and under-appreciated workers who try to put kids like this onto the straight and narrow.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Royal Commission?
Charon QC has found this quote from an eminent academic lawyer:
“A criminal justice system that has already seen too much reform is about to be subjected to yet more change. Why? Almost everyone recognises - even if they won’t admit it -that the latest reforms announced by John Reid have more to do with a perceived need to appear tough than they do with rational, thoughtful policy-making. Behind the rhetoric there is growing chaos - the planned prison-probation merger into the NOMS is in a mess; long-standing plans for police reform have suddenly been shelved; despite year on year falls in crime, two thirds of the public think it is on the increase. At no point in the last half century has the need for a royal commission on crime and justice been more urgently required.”I can't disagree with that.
Professor Tim Newburn
Director, Mannheim Centre for Criminology, LSE
Now That's What I Call Investing
I have seen a copy of a letter from Alex Allan, head honcho at the Department for Constitutional Affairs, to all its staff. On the bottom of the letterhead is the logo of "Investor in People".
The letter goes on to say that 1,700 of those people are going to be sacked.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Recreational Violence
We had to deal with a case of affray against a group of young men. This is an either-way offence and to reinforce his recommendation that we should decline jurisdiction and commit the matter to the Crown Court the prosecutor read us the case summary and handed up still photographs taken from the large amount of CCTV evidence he had available.
The men had gone out drinking in the town, and became rowdy, at which time they were asked to leave the pub they were in. They made their way to another, and after a while they were again asked to leave.
They swaggered, foul-mouthed and belligerent, into the street where, entirely unprovoked, they set about a couple of young men who were innocently making their way past. The melée spilled into the road, and a driver, who had been forced to brake, remonstrated with the group; he too was set on for his pains.
Our town centre is well covered by high quality CCTV and the stills clearly identified individuals who were kicking figures lying curled up on the pavement, and after seeing them we had no hesitation in sending the case to the Crown Court to be dealt with.
Standing in the dock they looked like an unexceptional group of young men. The public preconception is that they should either look like furtive hoodies or Neanderthal thugs but their main feature was their apparent normality.
The inescapable fact is that for many young men violence is welcomed as a part of their social life, providing an outlet for male aggression in a world in which women are taking on former male roles, and in which strength no longer carries the premium that it did. Alcohol was the trigger that set off this explosion of violence, but they probably expected that would be the case when they went out.
Once this sort of thing becomes socially embedded the only possible police response is to meet force with force (and I have spoken to a good few young officers who don't mind a bit of rough stuff on a Saturday night either). Sentencing will have to be at a deterrent level, but whether anyone will be deterred is another question altogether.
The men had gone out drinking in the town, and became rowdy, at which time they were asked to leave the pub they were in. They made their way to another, and after a while they were again asked to leave.
They swaggered, foul-mouthed and belligerent, into the street where, entirely unprovoked, they set about a couple of young men who were innocently making their way past. The melée spilled into the road, and a driver, who had been forced to brake, remonstrated with the group; he too was set on for his pains.
Our town centre is well covered by high quality CCTV and the stills clearly identified individuals who were kicking figures lying curled up on the pavement, and after seeing them we had no hesitation in sending the case to the Crown Court to be dealt with.
Standing in the dock they looked like an unexceptional group of young men. The public preconception is that they should either look like furtive hoodies or Neanderthal thugs but their main feature was their apparent normality.
The inescapable fact is that for many young men violence is welcomed as a part of their social life, providing an outlet for male aggression in a world in which women are taking on former male roles, and in which strength no longer carries the premium that it did. Alcohol was the trigger that set off this explosion of violence, but they probably expected that would be the case when they went out.
Once this sort of thing becomes socially embedded the only possible police response is to meet force with force (and I have spoken to a good few young officers who don't mind a bit of rough stuff on a Saturday night either). Sentencing will have to be at a deterrent level, but whether anyone will be deterred is another question altogether.
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Kind, if Worrying
The Guardian Leader is kind enough to mention this blog today. Worryingly, it mentions people sacked for blogging.
I do hope that nobody is cross enough with me to want to see me fired. All that I try to do is to dispel some of the unnecessary mystery that surrounds the courts.
Oh yes, there is the being rude about politicians, the CPS, and who knows whom else. But they are big enough and ugly enough to take a bit of stick from the likes of me. They are, aren't they?
I do hope that nobody is cross enough with me to want to see me fired. All that I try to do is to dispel some of the unnecessary mystery that surrounds the courts.
Oh yes, there is the being rude about politicians, the CPS, and who knows whom else. But they are big enough and ugly enough to take a bit of stick from the likes of me. They are, aren't they?
All Right, Then, I'm A Softy
We had an East European in the dock a couple of weeks ago, charged with Class C (i.e. Cannabis) possession. So far, so run-of-the-mill.
We heard the facts, and it turned out that our man had been the victim of an assault in which he was stabbed several times, mercifully without danger to his life. Police went to the hospital, and took away his clothes, since they might have been of evidential value.
The clothes were inspected before being put into store, and that's when the wraps of drugs were found.
So after recovering from his wounds (the assailant either having been pathetically inexpert or just a chap who doesn't take any job seriously) the man finished up in front of the bench.
Well, what would you have done?
We decided that after being knifed, spending two weeks in hospital, and losing his stash as well as some of his limited stock of clothing, enough was enough.
Some would call our Conditional Discharge a wimp-out. We thought it was pretty fair, in all the circumstances.
We heard the facts, and it turned out that our man had been the victim of an assault in which he was stabbed several times, mercifully without danger to his life. Police went to the hospital, and took away his clothes, since they might have been of evidential value.
The clothes were inspected before being put into store, and that's when the wraps of drugs were found.
So after recovering from his wounds (the assailant either having been pathetically inexpert or just a chap who doesn't take any job seriously) the man finished up in front of the bench.
Well, what would you have done?
We decided that after being knifed, spending two weeks in hospital, and losing his stash as well as some of his limited stock of clothing, enough was enough.
Some would call our Conditional Discharge a wimp-out. We thought it was pretty fair, in all the circumstances.
Any Ideas?
I learn from a member of Court staff that it has been deemed 'inappropriate' to use the word 'ladies' (but 'gentlemen' is okay, it seems). 'Girls' has been out for some time now.
So if I walk into a room full of persons of a different gender to my own, how do I start off?
"Good Morning, Women"?
"Hi, guys"? (I really hate that)
"Yo, bitches" while being street-smart could cause offence.
What do I do?
So if I walk into a room full of persons of a different gender to my own, how do I start off?
"Good Morning, Women"?
"Hi, guys"? (I really hate that)
"Yo, bitches" while being street-smart could cause offence.
What do I do?
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
A Nice Line From The Lord Chief
The Lord Chief Justice spoke last night at a top-level dinner. This bit of his speech caught my eye:-
The demands of my current position did mean that I had to catch up with developments in criminal law over the past eight years, and that proved quite a task.Nicely put, Your Lordship.
I enrolled on the Judicial Studies Board Criminal Law Continuation Course - for me it was very much an induction course.......
I was astonished and concerned at the complexity of the sentencing exercise that a judge is required to perform. There has been a deluge of legislation over recent years affecting sentencing.
This, together with the guidance of the Sentencing Guidelines Council, restricts the scope of the discretion that a judge previously enjoyed when deciding on the appropriate sentence.
It takes a lot of study to master the intricacies of sentencing today, which can result in criticisms of sentences by those who have not conducted such study being wide of the mark.
I have asked Lord Justice Keene, who chairs the Judicial Studies Board, whether he can lay on a sentencing induction course for Home Secretaries. He is considering this, but has warned me that the frequency of such courses would have resource implications.
Monday, July 17, 2006
Leading Edge Law From The Land of The Lumberjack and The Beaver Hunter
Slaw is a Canadian legal website, with a technical and IT slant.
Much of it is of strictly Canadian, but I couldn't resist Changes to the Ontario rules of civil procedure forms which, in its way, is as immortal as Beachcomber's "List of Huntingdonshire Cabmen", albeit without the latter's quality of barely-suppressed excitement.
Much of it is of strictly Canadian, but I couldn't resist Changes to the Ontario rules of civil procedure forms which, in its way, is as immortal as Beachcomber's "List of Huntingdonshire Cabmen", albeit without the latter's quality of barely-suppressed excitement.
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