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Council Hosts Conference on the Role of the Community in Sentencing

21 Jul 2006

The Sentencing Advisory Council is hosting a two day international conference, to be officially opened today by the Attorney-General, the Hon. Rob Hulls MP.

Council Chair Professor Arie Freiberg said "The Sentencing and the Community: Politics, Public Opinion and the Development of Sentencing Policy conference will examine the relationship between sentencing and the community, including the emerging phenomenon of advisory councils around the world."

Institutions and processes that involve the community in policy development are changing the sentencing environment.

Prof Freiberg said that "Criminal justice issues and sentencing are matters of great public interest, and sometimes controversy."

"A criminal justice system which loses touch with the values of its community risks losing its legitimacy."

"However, a criminal justice system that responds to every passing mood, trauma or crisis will soon lose its ability to function as an institution which stands between the state and the individual and whose role is to uphold and reflect the principles of justice" he said.

Several prominent international and national speakers will examine the role of victim and community representation on sentencing councils, parole boards and other bodies.

The conference will also consider the role which public opinion plays in the development of sentencing policy, including how best to identify informed community views on sentencing issues.

The Council will launch a paper Myths and Misconceptions: Public opinion vs public judgment about sentencing that examines the research from around the world about what is known about public opinion on sentencing, and how public opinion can be measured in a defensible way.