Virtual You Be the Judge is the Council's online program that lets you participate in various aspects of a sentencing hearing.
Learn about the factors involved in the sentencing process as you move through the experience of hearing from victims, offenders, prosecutors, defence lawyers and the judge. Then you will be able to sentence each offender yourself and compare your sentence with that of the actual judge.
Virtual You Be the Judge includes four cases:
- Richard, convicted of culpable driving causing death
- Dane, convicted of causing injury
- Terri, convicted of trafficking in a drug of dependence
- Peter, convicted of burglary.
Then see if you can match your sentence with that of the actual judge.
Go to Virtual You Be the Judge.
Changes to Sentencing Law and Practice
Virtual You Be the Judge case studies reflect sentencing law and practice at the time of publication. Richard (culpable driving), Terri (drug trafficking) and Dane (causing injury) were published in October 2010. Peter (burglary) was published in September 2012. Sentencing law and practice have changed considerably since then, most notably for culpable driving and causing injury offences. Up-to-date summaries of Victorian sentencing law can be found on this website, including in A Quick Guide to Sentencing. Recent statistics on sentencing practices for these and other offences can also be found on this website.
Compatibility
Virtual You Be the Judge runs best using the Chrome browser on a desktop or laptop computer.
If you are using Safari or Firefox, ensure that auto-play video is enabled.
If the introductory video freezes, press ‘skip video’ to run the application.
We Appreciate Your Feedback
You can report any problems with Virtual You Be the Judge via our contact form. If possible, please provide a description of the problem, your device and the browser you are using.
You Be the Judge Scripts
Virtual You Be the Judge scripts are available for all four case studies: culpable driving, drug trafficking, causing injury and burglary.
You Be the Judge Sessions
The Council offers free You Be the Judge sessions for legal and advocacy groups. You can use our You Be the Judge booking form to organise a session with us.
