Book review: Sentencing: New Trajectories in Law
| Author | Gavin Dingwall |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/17488958221102998 |
| Published date | 01 February 2023 |
| Date | 01 February 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
160 Criminology & Criminal Justice 23(1)
Note
1. In Dunblane, 16 primary school children and their teacher were shot and killed in March 1996
by a gunman who entered their gymnasium. In Soham, in August 2002, two 10-year-old girls
were abducted and murdered by a school caretaker.
References
Bauman Z (2001) Community: Seeking Safety in an Insecure World. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Goffman E (1963) Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. Harmondsworth:
Penguin Books.
Greer C (2010) Crime and Media: A Reader. London: Routledge.
Kabir N (2010) Young British Muslims: Identity, Culture, Politics and the Media. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Elaine A. O. Freer, Sentencing: New Trajectories in Law, Routledge: Abingdon, 2021; 146 pp.: 978-
0367862619, £44.99 (hbk), 978-1003201625, £15.29 (ebk)
Reviewed by: Gavin Dingwall, De Montfort University, UK
DOI: 10.1177/17488958221102998
This work does not seek to add to the voluminous literature on what the purpose of sen-
tencing should be, although the author does not shy away from dismissing spurious
claims that punishment can achieve particular outcomes, or, more commonly, that these
aims cannot be realised in an under-resourced criminal justice system. Instead, through a
careful analysis of cases she was involved in as a practising barrister, Freer assesses how
sentencers apply the extensive list of sentencing aims provided in s.57(2) of the
Sentencing Act 2020: the punishment of offenders, the reduction of crime (including its
reduction by deterrence), the reform and rehabilitation of offenders, the protection of the
public, and the making of reparations by offenders to persons affected by their offences.
Each aim forms the basis of a chapter. Although this is not a treatise on penal theory,
Freer concludes that ‘the non-hierarchical nature of s.57 is actually a key strength of
sentencing legislation, by allowing Judges, even within legislation and Guidelines, to
partly tailor a sentence to the individual’ (p. 20). It was striking throughout how willing
sentencers were to depart from sentencing guidelines, presumably on the basis that it
would be ‘contrary to the interests of justice’ were they to apply them (s.59(1) Sentencing
Act 2020). In contrast, the finding that sentencers prioritise a given aim in individual
cases is not a surprise, but, what is fascinating in this study is the factors that influenced
such decisions.
The book’s first obvious strength is that it studies cases from the magistrates’ court
and the Crown Court as opposed to unrepresentative appellate decisions from the Court
of Appeal. Here, we learn the fate of speeders, drink-drivers, and shoplifters – the aims
in the Sentencing Act 2020 are every bit as applicable to those individuals as they are to
the robbers and the burglars whose cases are also considered. This serves as a valuable
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