New Cases Available for You be the Judge Kit
The Sentencing Advisory Council has released two new case studies for our popular You be the Judge Teachers’ Kit.
The new case studies focus on:
- A situation where a mother and her 19 year old daughter have been convicted for the offence of trafficking in a drug of dependence
- Two cases of serious theft, where students can compare and contrast the impact of the personal circumstances of the two offenders with the differing sentence outcomes.
Both cases have been developed for use in the Civics and Citizenship domain, but teachers may find them equally useful in Legal Studies.
What’s included in the kit?
Originally developed as a community education program, You be the Judge aims to educate students about the purposes, methods and complexities of sentencing. The program uses real sentencing case studies which provide a vehicle for students to discuss and consider offences committed, apply the principles of sentencing and experience for themselves what’s involved in handing down a sentence.
The kit includes a teachers guide, slide shows and notes. The guide provides background notes on sentencing in the Victorian court system, preparation for presenting the case studies and links to relevant curriculum and other resources.
The slide shows are accompanied by notes that include relevant statistics and information about sentencing for the crimes featured in the cases, suggested activities and possible assessment tasks.
As well as these new cases, the kit includes:
- two case studies for VCE Legal Studies – on culpable driving and armed robbery
- one case study for use in the Civics and Citizenship domain for Years 9 and 10 involving a serious assault.
Who should use the kit?
You be the Judge is a useful resource in VCE Legal Studies Unit 1 – Area of Study 1: Criminal Law and Area of Study 2: The Courtroom, and VELS for Years 9 and 10.
While the VELS cases were developed around the Civics and Citizenship domain, the material could be used across the learning areas of English, Humanities, Health, Mathematics and Information and Communications Technology.
All of the material for the kit is available for download from this website, or teachers can contact the Sentencing Advisory Council for a free CD containing all of the material.