Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-788cddb947-pt5lt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-10-13T14:11:06.068Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

7 - Consistency in Applying Sentence Discounts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2022

Kevin Cheng
Affiliation:
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Get access

Summary

The sentencing guidelines for the sliding scale of sentence discounts in both England and Wales and Hong Kong have provided for judicial discretion to depart from the recommended sentence reductions. This chapter investigates the consistency of applying the sentencing guidelines in the two jurisdictions. It is found that in general, both English and Hong Kong courts adhere to the recommended guidelines. Multivariate analyses, however, using the sentence discount as the outcome reveal gender and confession to be significant factors for departing from guidelines, with female defendants and defendants who have confessed given a higher sentence discount. Moreover, when reviewing the sentencing process, inconsistencies occur when judges apply aggravating and mitigating factors, as well as the sentence discount for guilty pleas, which may lead to inconsistencies in sentence outcomes.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Timing of Guilty Pleas
Lessons from Common Law Jurisdictions
, pp. 148 - 174
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×