Roundtable: Rethinking Sentencing

Session Submission Type: Roundtable Session

Abstract/Description

Sentencing has been through all manner of upheavals around the globe across the last decade or two. Many countries have seen a punitive turn with rates of imprisonment rocketing. More people sent to jail, longer sentences, but also calls to end short custodial terms of under 6 months. Bringing perspectives from across the world including Canada, Hong Kong, and the UK, this international and diverse panel will critically re-examine the state of sentencing, the rationales leading the way, the rise or non-rise of guidelines in some jurisdictions to structure the sentencing approach, and of course the rise (and fall in some instances) of both indeterminate sentences, and mandatory minimum sentences. In contemplating why these developments have taken place, we will discuss if there is any nobler reason for the recent trajectory, or is the elusive notion of proportionality to blame, now subject to the forces of penal populism following the democratisation of criminal justice. We shall ask is it time for a new approach, and if so, what should that look like, as we rethink sentencing.

Sub Unit

• Area XI. Roundtables

Discussants

• George R. Mawhinney, Sheffield Hallam University

• Marie Manikis, McGill University

• Daniel Pascoe, City University of Hong Kong