Sentencing Policy and Social Justice

Abstract

The book argues that the promotion of social justice should become a key objective of sentencing policy. It rejects the idea that current forms of justice delivery can respond adequately to the social realities of social exclusion, discrimination, and poverty and their impact on criminality and victimization. Rather, it argues that a deeper understanding of the moral values that underpin punishment by the state is necessary, one that engages more convincingly with the justice needs and expectations of citizens and communities. It concludes that meaningful normative change is only possible where the moral foundations that underpin penal ideology and inform the sentencing policies and practices of the courts reflect a ‘real’ sharing of values about the social utility of sentencing and its outcomes. This aspiration is not portrayed as some kind of vague utopian notion, but as a fundamental necessity for the future legitimacy of penal governance. The book explores how sentencing might contribute more effectively to the achievement of social justice by engaging with some controversial and difficult problems, such as the sentencing of irregular migrants, offences of serious public disorder, sentencing for financial crime, and the sentencing of women. It concludes by proposing some practical reforms to sentencing in England and Wales based on the arguments developed in the earlier chapters, including an expanded role for the Sentencing Council in the development of a more regional and community-focused sentencing policy.

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