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Revising Images of Public Punitiveness: Sentencing by Lay and Professional English Magistrates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Abstract

England grants unusually broad responsibility for sentencing of criminal offenders to voluntary part-time lay magistrates who, like their legally trained professional colleagues, sentence a wide range of offenders. Using simulated cases, archival analyses, and observational techniques, this article compares the sentencing decisions of the lay and professional magistrates in London. The study reveals no evidence of the lay preference for more severe sentencing that is typically shown in public opinion polls. The extent to which legal training, court experience, panel decisionmaking and role within the court system can explain the relative leniency of the lay magistrates are considered Consistent with results from other studies, these findings suggests that when laypersons assign sentences to particular offenders rather than express generalized satisfaction or dissatisfaction with current sentencing practices, laypersons are no more punitive than professional judges.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © American Bar Foundation, 1990 

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References

1 In most U.S. states, lay sentencing is limited to jury decisions in capital cases on whether the death penalty should be imposed. Six states also give juries some authority to sentence in noncapital cases (Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, and Virginia).Google Scholar

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