you be the judge years 9 and 10 teacher guide · web viewyears 9 and 10 teacher guide cross...

You be the JudgeYears 9 and 10 Teacher GuideCross Curriculum Units

Sentencing Advisory CouncilJanuary 2017

You be the Judge Years 9 and 10 Teacher Guide Sentencing Advisory Council | 2

About You be the JudgeYou be the Judge is a package of teaching materials on sentencing in Victoria. It covers basic sentencing theory and incorporates sentencing case studies based on real cases (names and some details have been changed).

The Sentencing Advisory Council of Victoria created You be the Judge as part of its community education function. The purpose of You be the Judge is to raise awareness of and address community concerns about sentencing.

You be the Judge is designed for use in Victorian schools in Years 9 and 10. It provides an engaging way for students to discuss, consider, and apply the principles of sentencing. Students will be required to weigh and balance the same factors in sentencing that judges do, and in so doing, students learn about how the boundaries of the law, current sentencing practices, and community values affect criminal sentencing in Victoria.

The Sentencing Advisory Council of Victoria is an independent statutory body established in 2004 under amendments to the Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic). The functions of the Council are to:

provide statistical information on sentencing, including information on current sentencing practices

conduct research and disseminate information on sentencing matters gauge public opinion on sentencing consult on sentencing matters advise the Attorney-General on sentencing issues provide the Court of Appeal with written views on the giving, or review, of a guideline

judgment.

Sentencing attracts a lot of community interest and concern. It often divides opinion. Perceived inconsistencies between the sentences imposed in different cases of the same kind of offence provide compelling stories for news and current affairs media, as does the anger of crime victims and their families at the perceived leniency of a sentence. Some commentators regularly criticise the courts for being soft on crime.

There is widespread misunderstanding of the purposes of sentencing and the meaning of key elements in sentencing such as parole and statutory maximum penalties.

By informing, advising, and educating, the Council aims to bridge the gaps in opinion that sentencing can provoke between the courts, the government, and the community.

The case studies in You be the Judge concentrate on the sentencing phase of the legal process. There is no mystery about the outcomes of the trials in these case studies. Each of the accused has been found guilty, so the focus is entirely on the factors that must be taken into account in sentencing the offender.

The case studies are presented as slide shows with accompanying teachers’ notes, including discussion points and suggested activities. This Teacher Guide provides links to relevant curriculum and preparation for teachers presenting the case studies.


Curriculum links and student learning outcomes

Victorian curriculumAs a teaching and learning resource, You be the Judge provides opportunities for various types of teaching and learning for a variety of capabilities across different learning areas.

You be the Judge contains topical, highly relevant resource material and opportunities for students to demonstrate capabilities in the learning areas of:

Civics and Citizenship English History Mathematics Media Arts Digital Technologies.

Implementing You be the Judge across a number of curriculum areas lets students practise specific skills before drawing the threads together at the end of the study to reflect on what the group has learned about the process of sentencing. For example:

an English class might practise the skills of discussion and expository writing a Mathematics class might concentrate on statistics and graph interpretation a Civics and Citizenship class might explore how sentencing affects citizens’ rights and

responsibilities.

Learning areas and capabilities

An important aspect of You be the Judge is the opportunity to teach and develop critical and creative thinking capabilities including:

solving problems making decisions thinking critically developing an argument using evidence in support of an argument.

Many of the activities will also help students to develop ethical, personal, and social capabilities.


Suggested student activities

The suggested student activities in You be the Judge include symbols showing the learning area or capability with which it is most aligned:

English Civics and Citizenship History Mathematics ± Digital Technologies Critical and Creative Thinking The Arts Media Arts

The computer symbol is used to indicate activities that require student use of a computer and the internet.

National Educational GoalsThe Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians (2008) affirms the need to enable young Australians to engage effectively with an increasingly complex world and to become active and informed so they can exercise their rights and responsibilities as citizens.

The You be the Judge program strongly reflects the goals of this Declaration, especially:

having ethical integrity exercising judgment and responsibility in matters of morality needing to be active and informed citizens with a commitment to the national values of

democracy, equity, and justice being willing to participate in Australia’s civic life.

National Framework for Values Education in Australian SchoolsYou be the Judge provides links with the National Framework for Values Education in Australian Schools. It ties in closely with the nine values for Australian schooling articulated in the National Framework.

Sentencing is based on values – the principles and fundamental beliefs that guide the community’s behaviour. You be the Judge supports values education by exploring the values reflected in sentencing law and by considering how these values apply in specific, real-life cases.


Key concepts and understandingsYou be the Judge works by providing students with the tools necessary to understand the aims, principles, and practice of sentencing in Victoria.

It requires students to apply this knowledge to a real-life case where they must make an informed decision about the appropriate penalty to impose on an offender. To do this effectively, students must learn about the range of penalties available for a particular crime, and understand the purposes, principles, and factors that influence sentencing.

As students go through the sentencing process for themselves, it will become clear that some degree of subjectivity is involved in sentencing. Just as for real-life judges and magistrates, students will find that sentencing an offender requires not just an understanding of the law, but also some reflection on personal values and community attitudes. These values and attitudes can be explored in many of the activities suggested within the teaching materials.

The teaching materials should be read alongside A Quick Guide to Sentencing (available on the Council’s website). The Quick Guide is a plain-language overview for teachers and students of the ‘what, when, where, how, and why’ of sentencing in Victoria.

You be the Judge case studies

CautionBe discreet. Each of the case studies presented in You be the Judge is based on a real-life case. Names and some details have been changed. Victims and offenders alike have families, and some of these may be among your students. Unless there is a good reason to do so, resist suggestions to track down the actual case.

Be sensitive. Some of the offences and the details covered in You be the Judge could be traumatic for some students, especially those who have been involved in a similar case, are involved with the legal system, or have a parent or close relative in prison.

Each of the You be the Judge case studies has a set of slides and notes. Relevant statistics and information about sentencing for the crimes featured in the case studies are provided on the slides. Comments, extra information, suggested activities, and possible assessment tasks are provided in the notes that accompany the slides.

Before beginning a case study with your class, it is important that you read the slides and the accompanying notes in conjunction with the Teacher Guide. Decide which slides to emphasise and which activities to set for your students. There are many different suggested activities included in the notes to the slides, and there are further suggestions for individual and group activities elsewhere in this Teacher Guide.


Choice of activities

There is more material provided than you will have time to cover in class. It is included to allow a choice of activities so you can design the most relevant, interesting, and appropriate set of lessons for your students.

The suggested student activities comprise two components:

discussion: questions that may be considered or activities that may be undertaken in class during the case study

extension: activities that require additional time and resources to conduct.

Duration

You be the Judge was originally designed to run in four sessions, each of 50 minutes:

two sessions spent laying the foundation using slides in Sections 1–3 one session on the crime and sentence (Sections 4–5) a final session on sentence review and conclusion (Section 6).

You should not be constrained by this approach, however. Many teachers feel that the skills employed are important enough to justify spending longer on the program.

Before you begin, it is helpful to find out what knowledge and experience your students already have of the law, the courts, sentencing, and human rights.

Preparation for You be the JudgeAfter you have made yourself familiar with the material here, you may find it useful to prepare some resources to suit your particular approach to You be the Judge. Resources that could help to deliver the program include:

a selection of recent newspaper clippings dealing with examples of the kind of offence featured in the case study

a copy of the relevant Sentencing Snapshot (available from the Sentencing Advisory Council’s website)

sentencing statistics for the offence dealt with in the chosen case study (available from SACStat, the Council’s online sentencing statistics tool)

handouts to assist students in understanding the ideas about sentencing introduced in the slides and for reference when students are considering their own sentences. Such handouts could include:

descriptions of the various sentences available (e.g. from A Quick Guide to Sentencing)

relevant extracts from the Crimes Act 1958 (Vic), such as a description of the offence

relevant extracts from court transcripts as provided in the notes to the slides the glossary from this Teacher Guide.

http://www.sentencingcouncil.vic.gov.au/sacstat/home.html

http://www.sentencingcouncil.vic.gov.au/snapshot


When to ask students to consider a sentenceThe slides present basic sentencing theory before the details of the case are revealed. Only then are students asked to fix an appropriate sentence for the crime. This format helps ensure that students keep an open mind while learning about the facts of the case.

If details of the case are presented before students learn about basic sentencing theory, they may be less likely to consider sentences other than the one they arrived at in an initial knee-jerk reaction to the facts of the case.

Delivering You be the Judge case studiesThe slides are divided into six sections:

1. What is sentencing?

2. Sentencing theory

3. The crime and the time

4. The case

5. The sentence

6. Conclusion.

Suggested student activitiesA question is posed on the title slide at the beginning of each section. Use general questioning to collect student predictions of the answer to these questions. Differences and similarities between student opinions and the facts of the case provide opportunities for lively discussion and debate.

1. What is sentencing?

The first section of slides concerns the origin and range of sentences available to judges in Victoria – where sentences originate and the range and the hierarchy of sentences.

Suggested student activitiesActivities here focus on the separation of powers, what sentences are, and what students consider to be more and less severe sentences. Students use reasoning and analysis to compare their own values with community values as reflected in available sentences and examples of sentences reported in the media.

2. Sentencing theory

This section deals with the principles and purposes of sentencing and the factors that must be taken into account by judges when sentencing offenders.

Suggested student activitiesThere are many opportunities for student discussion and debate during this part of You be the Judge. However, it may be helpful to have only a brief discussion early in the program and return to the more popular or controversial issues after the details of the case have been described.


A continuum (points on a line) exercise can be used to measure students’ attitudes towards different aspects of sentencing (e.g. any or all of the five purposes of sentencing, the principles of sentencing, or parole and non-parole periods) both before and after a detailed discussion about the facts, definitions, and application of that issue.

Students could also discuss their observations of public attitudes to the application of a given sentencing purpose or principle, for example, by identifying from news reporting any recent case that reflects the public’s understanding of, support for, or rejection of the purpose or principle.

3. The crime and the time

This section outlines the specific crime emphasised in the case study – its description in law and the maximum penalty allowed under the law. There are also graphs that show recent sentencing trends for the particular crime.

Suggested student activitiesStudent discussion can focus on the case included in the case study, or on comparing this case with others from recent news media.

4. The case

Now it is time to consider the circumstances of the offence and the offender portrayed in the case study. Slides contain a description of the offender, a précis of the events that occurred during the offence, and other information that the judge would have had at his or her disposal at the point of imposing sentence.

It would be prudent to remind students that there is no question of guilt or innocence – the trial has been conducted and the accused has been found guilty. The focus of the case study is sentencing. Reiterating this point here will help to avoid irrelevant, time-wasting discussion.

5. The sentence

At this stage, students consider an appropriate sentence for the offence.

Suggested student activitiesStudents must choose the total sentence to be imposed. If the sentence involves imprisonment, students must also decide on the non-parole period. Students should articulate and defend their opinions on what is an appropriate sentence for the offence in the particular case.

Students must refer to:

the purposes and principles of sentencing the circumstances of the offender the circumstances of the offence.

Students should use specialised and appropriate legal terminology in defending their opinions.

This activity can be conducted effectively by having individual students make their own decisions, noting down their reasoning, and then coming together in small groups to discuss their results and their reasons for arriving at them.


For effective, collaborative learning in groups, students should assume designated roles, such as manager, timekeeper, recorder, and reporter. These roles can be negotiated within the group or allocated by you. Later, whole class discussion will almost certainly reveal a wide range of sentences, providing an opportunity for reminding students about the pressure on judges to ‘get it right’.

Students can identify other information that may have helped the judge to come to a fair decision. What factors could have had a bearing on the sentence but were not mentioned in the earlier slides?

Students may identify personal characteristics of the offender, such as age, gender, personal circumstances, or cultural background, and speculate about the effect these have on the offence or sentence. Such observations provide an opportunity to talk about the fact that judges are human, but emphasise the importance for consistency in sentencing and having some sentencing guidelines for judges to work within, such as those outlined in the Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic).

Once the various sentences imposed by the students have been discussed and justified, reshow the slides of sentencing graphs from Section 3 (‘The crime and the time’). Ask students to construct generalisations about the sentence imposed for the offence highlighted in the case study. These might include comments on the distribution of various types of sentences imposed.

Students can then, either individually or in small groups, return to the sentences they decided on and discuss how well their sentences ‘fit’ with the statistics. Are there any indications that students’ sentences may be too severe or too lenient?

Now reveal the actual sentence imposed by the trial judge. Compare this sentence with the sorts of sentences decided on by the students. Is there general agreement or is there a wide disparity? Go back to the graphs concerning past sentences to note where the judge’s sentence fits. Construct a quick continuum on which students can record their reactions to the judge’s

sentence. Discuss similarities and differences between the judge’s sentence and sentences

suggested by students, seeking possible reasons for similarities/differences. Can students identify different values at work here?

6. Conclusion

Through two statements on sentencing, the final slide provides an opportunity for students to reflect on what they have learnt about sentencing. The acknowledgement of any changes in attitude experienced by students during the program will highlight the importance of being well informed.

Suggested concluding student activitiesAt the conclusion of the case study, recall questions can serve as a focus for quick revision. You might also like to present questions for discussion in large or small groups or in pairs, with the aim of coming up with consensus answers, or to have individuals respond with formal written answers.

The following list includes examples of both sorts of questions:

Explain what the term ‘sentencing hierarchy’ means and give examples to illustrate your explanation.

List the five distinct purposes for which sentences may be imposed as set out in the Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic).


What factors must a judge take into account when sentencing an offender? What is a Victim Impact Statement? When in the trial sequence is it introduced? How is it

conveyed to the judge? What is its purpose? Because of human nature and the make-up of our judicial system, there will always be a

subjective element in sentencing. Explain what this means and give examples of actions by the courts and parliament taken to minimise this subjective element.

Do you think the sentencing process takes enough account of the victim and the community?

If you were a judge, how would you explain the sentence you gave for an offence outlined in the case study?

What changes to the sentencing process would you recommend? Can you see a possible solution to counteract perceptions gathered from the media that

sentencing for some offences is too lenient?

Taking it further

There are many opportunities to expand on the detail of the case studies. However, time restraints will dictate which activities are practical in your particular circumstances. Extension activities are included in the case studies. Listed below are some examples of the sorts of activities that could be undertaken.

Suggested student activities Research newspaper coverage of similar crimes and subsequent court cases. Decisions made

by courts can be accessed at the Australian Legal Information Institute (AustLII) website. Compare newspaper coverage (including news, feature articles, opinion pieces, editorials, and letters to the editor) with the facts of the case as outlined in court decisions. Look for areas of similarity and difference. Is there any emotive reporting or distortion or omission of facts? Use the newspapers as stimulus for student writing – perhaps a rebuttal of an article, a letter to the editor, or a rewrite of an article.

Identify a contentious issue that arises from the case study. Devise a brief questionnaire to canvass the opinions of fellow students and/or members of the public. A useful extension of this is to construct a fact sheet about a particular offence and its associated sentences. Have fellow students and/or members of the public read the fact sheet before answering a questionnaire, then have a group answer the same questionnaire without having read the fact sheet. Compare the responses and make some generalisations comparing public opinion to informed public opinion.

Take on the role of a victim from one of the case studies and write a Victim Impact Statement (a guide to writing a Victim Impact Statement is available on the Victims of Crime website). Read statements written by other students and consider how each statement might influence the decision-making of a judge or a magistrate imposing a sentence.

Access the Sentencing Statistics section on the Sentencing Advisory Council’s website and make thoughtful generalisations about topics, such as the overall rate of imprisonment over a period of time in Victoria, the sentencing trends in various courts of Victoria, or changes in sentencing trends in Victoria.

Focus on the type of offence in the case study. Using the Sentencing Advisory Council’s website (especially SACStat and Sentencing Snapshots), devise a wall chart showing both the prevalence of the offence and the sentencing statistics related to it over the past five years. Alternatively, combine in a group to devise and present a multimedia overview of the offence and its sentencing history in Victoria.

http://www.sentencingcouncil.vic.gov.au/snapshot

http://www.sentencingcouncil.vic.gov.au/sacstat/home.html

http://www.sentencingcouncil.vic.gov.au/statistics/sentencing-statistics

http://www.victimsofcrime.vic.gov.au/home/going+to+court/victim+impact+statements/

http://www.austlii.edu.au/


ResourcesHere is an introductory list of resources as starting points for further study and reference.

Web resources: Victoria

Title URL Description

Courts Services Victoria

http://www.courts.vic.gov.au Links to all Victorian courts and tribunals

Department of Justice and Regulation

www.justice.vic.gov.au Information about the justice system in Victoria, including fines and penalties, prisons, and community corrections

Judicial College of Victoria

www.judicialcollege.vic.edu.au Primarily for judges, magistrates, and VCAT members, this site contains a copy of the Victorian Sentencing Manual and international links

Law Institute of Victoria

www.liv.asn.au Information on a variety of legal topics including juries and jury service and Australia’s legal system

Sentencing Advisory Council

www.sentencingcouncil.vic.gov.au General information about sentencing in Victoria, Sentencing Snapshots, research papers on sentencing, and Virtual You be the Judge

Victims of Crime http://www.victimsofcrime.vic.gov.au The official Victorian Government website for people affected by crime

Victoria Legal Aid www.legalaid.vic.gov.au List of resources and books available from the Legal Aid library, Ground Floor, 350 Queen St, Melbourne VIC 3000

Victorian Commercial Teachers Association

www.vcta.asn.au Lesson outlines, timetables, and online links for Legal Studies

Victoria Law Foundation

www.victorialawfoundation.org.au Victoria Law Foundation helps Victorians understand the law and the legal system

Victorian Law Reform Commission

www.lawreform.vic.gov.au Information on reviews undertaken by the Law Reform Commission; includes a downloadable publication for students on Law Reform in Action


Web resources: Australia

Title URL Description

ABC Radio – The Law Report

www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/lawreport A site search for ‘sentencing’ brings up relevant past programs concerning sentencing issues

Australian Institute of Criminology

www.aic.gov.au National research and knowledge centre on crime and justice

Australian Legal Information Institute (AustLII)

www.austlii.edu.au Databases for Australasian jurisdictions – cases and legislation

Useful Twitter profiles

Organisation Profile

Alternative Law Journal

@AltLJ Australia's leading independent human rights, social justice, law reform journal

Australian Institute of Criminology

@AICriminology Australia's national research and knowledge centre on crime and justice

Australian Law Reform Commission

@AusLawReform A federal agency that reviews Australia’s laws to ensure improved access to justice for all Australians by making laws and related processes more equitable, modern, fair, and efficient (www.alrc.gov.au)

Consumer Affairs Victoria

@consumervic A Business Unit of the Department of Justice and Regulation that helps consumers and traders by creating a fairer and more efficient marketplace

Crime Statistics Agency

@CrimeStatsVic Provides statistics, research, and information about crime in Victoria

Federation of Community Legal Centres

@CommunitylawVic Leads and supports Victorian community legal centres to make justice accessible for all

Human Rights Law Centre

@rightsagenda Protects and promotes human rights in Australia and beyond through a strategic mix of legal action, advocacy, education, and capacity building

Law Institute of Victoria Journal (LIJ)

@theLIJ The award-winning LIJ is the Law Institute of Victoria’s flagship publication

Liberty Victoria @LibertyVic One of Australia’s leading civil liberties organisations, working since 1936 to defend and extend human rights and freedoms

Sentencing Advisory Council

@SACvic Research, statistics, and education about sentencing in Victoria. Tweets about relevant criminal justice matters

Victoria Law Foundation – Everyday Law

@everydaylawvic Easy-to-understand legal information, legal tips, and the latest legal news for Victorians

Victorian Law Reform Commission

@VicLawReform An independent, government-funded organisation that develops, reviews, and recommends reform of Victorian state laws


Glossary

Accused A person who has been charged with an offence but who has not (yet) been found guilty or not guilty.

Acquittal A finding that an accused person is not guilty of a criminal charge.

Affidavit A written statement, sworn or affirmed, that may be used as a substitute for oral evidence in court.

Aggravating factor

A fact or circumstance about the offender or the offence that may lead to a more severe sentence.

Appeal A request made to a higher court to review another court’s decision.

Bail The release of a person from legal custody into the community on condition that he or she reappears later for a court hearing to answer the charges.

Case law Law made by courts, including sentencing decisions and decisions on how to interpret legislation. This is also known as ‘common law’.

Child A person who is aged 10 years or over but under 18 years at the time of the offence and aged under 19 years when court proceedings begin. A child is usually sentenced in the Children’s Court under the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 (Vic).

Community-based order

A flexible, non-custodial sentence that includes community service, supervision, and personal development. This order was replaced from early 2012 with the community correction order (CCO).

Community correction order (CCO)

A flexible, non-custodial sentence that sits between imprisonment and fines on the sentencing hierarchy. Served in the community under conditions that may include unpaid community work, alcohol and drug bans, participation in treatment and rehabilitation programs, and/or restrictions on where the offender can go or live, or with whom they can associate.

Compensation Under the Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic), payment of money to a victim of crime to compensate for the pain, suffering, or property loss or damage caused directly because of the offence.

Concurrent sentences

Multiple individual sentences, imposed for more than one offence in a case, that are to be served at the same time, rather than one after the other. For example, two prison sentences each of five years served wholly concurrently would mean a total of five years in prison.

Conviction An order made by a court after finding that an accused person is guilty of the crime charged.


Crown In Victorian sentencing, ‘the Crown’ refers to either the police prosecutor (in the lower courts) or the public prosecutor (in the higher courts) who represents the State of Victoria in criminal matters.

Culpability Blameworthiness, the extent to which a person is held accountable for an offence.

Cumulative sentences

Multiple individual sentences, imposed for more than one offence in a case, that are to be served one after the other, rather than at the same time. For example, two prison sentences each of five years served wholly cumulatively would mean a total of 10 years in prison.

Custodial sentence

A sentence that involves the court imposing a term of imprisonment (for adults) or a period of detention (for children and young offenders).

Defence The accused in a trial and his or her legal advisors collectively.

Diversion program

A program designed to prevent first-time or low-risk offenders who have pleaded guilty from entering the criminal justice system. Diversion programs include conditions such as attending counselling, treatment, or defensive driving training.

Director of Public Prosecutions

The Director of Public Prosecutions makes decisions about whether to prosecute, and prosecutes, serious offences in the higher courts on behalf of the State of Victoria. The Director of Public Prosecutions is independent of government.

Electronic monitoring

Offenders wear electronic tags that monitor their movements and send an alarm to a monitoring unit if offenders break any restrictions on movement that have been imposed by the courts.

Fine A sum of money payable by an offender to the State of Victoria on the order of a court as a sentence.

Gross violence Circumstances that increase the seriousness of an offence of manslaughter or causing serious injury, and that result in mandatory minimum sentences under the Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic). Circumstances of gross violence include where the offender planned the offence in advance, committed the offence with a group of two or more other people, planned in advance to use a weapon, or continued to attack the victim after the victim was incapacitated.

Head sentence See ‘Total effective sentence’.

Higher courts In Victoria, the County Court and the Supreme Court.

Human rights The basic rights and freedoms to which all human beings are entitled, in the exercise of which a government may not interfere. Includes rights to life and liberty, freedom of thought and expression, and equality before the law.

Indictable offences

Serious crimes, such as murder and rape, usually tried before a judge and jury in the higher courts.


Infringement An offence attracting an infringement notice with a fixed financial penalty (e.g. a parking fine).

Jury A group of people (usually 12) without legal experience, chosen at random from the general community. A jury is given the responsibility of determining questions of fact on the basis of evidence presented in criminal trials for indictable offences in the higher courts and returning a verdict of ‘guilty’ or ‘not guilty’.

Mandatory sentence

A sentence set by parliament in legislation, allowing no discretion for the court to impose a different sentence.

Maximum penalty The most severe sentence set in legislation that a court can impose for a particular type of offence.

Mitigating factor A fact or circumstance about the offender or the offence that may lead to a less severe sentence.

Non-parole period (NPP)

The period of imprisonment set by the court that must be served by the offender in prison before he or she is eligible for release on parole.

Offender A person who has been found guilty of an offence or who has pleaded guilty to an offence (admitted the facts of an offence).

Office of Public Prosecutions

An independent statutory authority that commences, prepares, and conducts criminal prosecutions on behalf of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Parole Supervised and conditional release of an offender from prison before the end of his or her prison sentence. While on parole, the offender is still serving the sentence, and is subject to conditions designed to help him or her rehabilitate, reintegrate into the community, and reduce the risk of reoffending.

Parsimony (principle of parsimony)

To be parsimonious is to do no more than is necessary to achieve an intended purpose. The principle of parsimony means the sentence imposed must be no more severe than is necessary to meet the purposes of sentencing.

Penalty unit Fine amounts are based on penalty units rather than specific dollar amounts. Penalty units are adjusted annually to keep pace with inflation.

Plea The response by the accused to a criminal charge – ‘guilty’ or ‘not guilty’.

Precedent A decision that sets down a legal principle to be followed in similar cases in the future.

Prosecution A legal proceeding against an accused for a criminal offence. Prosecutions are brought by the Crown (through the Director of Public Prosecutions or police prosecutors), not the victim.

Recidivism Returning to or repeating criminal behaviour.


Remand To place an accused person in custody pending further court hearings relating to the charges that have been laid against that accused person.

Remorse Regret for past actions.

Restitution An order under the Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic) requiring an offender or any other person in possession or control of stolen property to return the property, an offender to return the proceeds of the sale of stolen property, or payment of a sum of money up to the value of the stolen property.

Sanction Penalty or sentence.

Sentence The penalty imposed by the court on a person guilty of an offence.

Sentencing hierarchy

All possible sentences available to courts arranged in order from the most severe to the least severe.

Statute law Law made by parliament set out in legislation called Acts of Parliament.

Summary offences

Offences that are less serious than indictable offences, (e.g. minor traffic offences and offensive behaviour). Generally, summary offences are heard in the Magistrates’ Court.

Suspended sentence

A sentencing order that has been abolished in Victoria. A suspended sentence was a sentence of imprisonment that was wholly or partially held back for a period by the court. If the offender reoffended during this period, he or she could be imprisoned for the total duration of the sentence. Suspended sentences are no longer available in the higher courts for offences committed on or after 1 September 2013 and in the Magistrates’ Court for offences committed on or after 1 September 2014.

Total effective sentence (TES)

In a case with a single charge, the total effective sentence is the sentence imposed for that charge before the non-parole period is imposed. In a case with multiple charges, the total effective sentence is the total of the sentences imposed for all charges, taking into account whether the sentences are to be served cumulatively or concurrently, before the non-parole period is imposed. Also known as the ‘head sentence’.

Victim A person who has been injured directly because of a criminal offence, or a family member of a person who has died because of a criminal offence. ‘Injury’ includes physical injuries, grief, distress, or trauma, and loss or damage to property.

Victim Impact Statement

A statement by a victim, presented to the court at the time of sentencing, explaining how the crime has affected him or her.

Young person/ young offender

Under the Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic), a person who is under the age of 21 years at the time of being sentenced.


References

BibliographyFox, Richard, Victorian Criminal Procedure: State and Federal Law (The Federation Press, 2015).

Freiberg, Arie, Pathways to Justice: Sentencing Review 2002 (Department of Justice, Melbourne, 2002).

Freiberg, Arie, Fox & Freiberg’s Sentencing: State and Federal Law in Victoria (3rd ed., Thomson Reuters, Sydney, 2014).

Gelb, Karen, Myths and Misconceptions: Public Opinion versus Public Judgment about Sentencing (Sentencing Advisory Council, 2006).

Ministerial Council on Education, Early Childhood Development and Youth Affairs, Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians (December 2008) <http://www.agppa.asn.au/images/papers/National_Declaration_on_the_Educational_Goals_for_Young_Australians%202008.pdf>.

Sentencing Advisory Council, Sentencing Snapshots (Sentencing Advisory Council, 2005–).

Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, Legal Studies: Victorian Certificate of Education Study Design (Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, 2010).

Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, Review of VCE Legal Studies: Summary of proposed changes to the study design, August 2016.

LegislationCharter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Vic)

Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 (Vic)

Confiscation Act 1997 (Vic)

Constitution Act 1975 (Vic)

Crimes Act 1914 (Cth)

Crimes Act 1958 (Vic)

Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth)

Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic)

Sex Offenders Registration Act 2004 (Vic)

Victims of Crime Assistance Act 1996 (Vic)


Victims’ Charter Act 2006 (Vic)

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