Criminal Profiling

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Criminal Justice Act 2003 Section 12
Sentencing MSc Forensic in Context 8th March
2005
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• Main Principles
• Putting the sense back into sentencing
• Stronger powers to control the release of
  dangerous offenders
• All prisoners to be supervised on release,
  irrespective of the length of sentence
• Tough and credible alternatives to custody day
  fines and punitive community sentences

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The sentencing framework
12 months plus
Indeterminate
Extended
Public Protection
12 Months Plus
Intermittent Custody
Custody Plus
Custody Minus
Under 12 months
Custody Threshold
High
Medium
Community Order
Community
Low
Community Threshold
Fines
Compensation Orders
Discharges
Suspended Custodial Sentence
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New structure for prison sentences

• Years

99
NON-DANGEROUS OFFENDERS (Sentenced after April
2005)
DANGEROUS OFFENDERS (Offences committed after
April 2005)
Release at discretion of the Parole Board
Automatic release at ½ way point
Very long licence periods for public protection
On licence for whole of remainder of sentence
1
51 weeks
CUSTODY PLUS (Estimated start date June 2006)
28 weeks
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Custody minus and intermittent custody
A short prison sentence may be suspended between
6 months and two years, subject to fulfilling
community sentence Custody minus (Starts 4
April 2005) Custody period may be served during
weekends or weekdays by suitable offenders
Intermittent Custody (Pilots started January
2004)
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Custody Plus Licence

• Conditions are set by the court as part of the
  sentence. They must include the standard
  conditions and at least one of the following
  requirements
• Unpaid work 40 to 300 hours
• Supervision
• Programme must be an accredited programme
• Specified activity up to 60 days. May include
  eg education course
• Prohibited activity particular days or whole
  period
• Exclusion plus electronic monitoring where
  necessary
• Curfew plus electronic monitoring where
  necessary
• Attendance Centre under 25s, 3hrs a day, 12
  36 hrs total
• They may include other conditions such as drug
  testing, electronic monitoring, etc, and
  different conditions may be set for different
  lengths of time.

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Two different public protection sentences
depending on maximum penalty for the offence
Maximum penalty 10 years or over serious
specified offences

• Indeterminate sentence for public protection

• Tariff set by court

• Discretionary release by Parole Bd

• Licence reviewed 10 years after release

Extended sentence for public protection
Maximum penalty under 10 years

• Release between ½ and full sentence, at
  discretion of Parole Bd

• On licence for up to 5 years (violent) or 8 years
  (sexual)

(For juveniles court may award the extended
sentence for a serious offence)
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Assessment of dangerousness

• Convicted of a sexual or violent offence carrying
  maximum penalty of 2 years or more
• Court considers the circumstances, the pattern of
  behaviour and information about the offender
• If significant risk to members of the public of
  serious harm from further sexual or violent
  offences, court must award a sentence for public
  protection.
• Must assume a risk of further offending for a
  second sexual or violent offence, unless it would
  be unreasonable to do so.
• Applies to adults and juveniles (with small
  modification)

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Strategic Implications

• Very short custodial periods under Custody Plus
• Case management across custody-community divide
• Pre-sentence assessments for sexual and violent
  offenders to inform decision on public protection
  sentences
• Increased number of indeterminate sentenced
  prisoners
• Incentive of parole removed for non-dangerous
  prisoners
• Management of licence recallees and potential
  population effects
• Not retrospective, so parallel populations for
  some years