Thresholds and Proportionality: what difference?
| DOI | 10.1177/026455059304000107 |
| Date | 01 March 1993 |
| Published date | 01 March 1993 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
have been systematically destroyed
put on the road. As such it is not a
through vandalism. However, these
financial disaster if one or two do go
incidents are much less common
than
missing and is certainly better than so-
we anticipated and have not
meones personal property being
significantly depleted the number of
stolen.
cycles we have available. Indeed, we
In conclusion, there continues to
have been heartened by the response
be a place for the Exeter Green Bike
of the public who have found damag-
Scheme as a crime prevention initiative
ed or abandoned cycles and have often
but not solely in the sense that it may
returned these to our offices for repair.
help reduce cycle theft. More impor-
In terms of
cost, the whole scheme has
tant is the message that it carries with
so far cost less than ~~~0 (most of
it to the local community, that Crime
which has come from charitable
Prevention belongs to all of us, Proba-
sources like the Devon
Care Trust) and
tion, Social Services, Police, the public
each green bike costs less than ~5 to
and last but not least, the offender.
Thresholds and
Proportionality:
what difference?
Brian Heritage, Regional Inspection Officer for the South
West Consortium of Probation Areas, draws some logical
conclusions from the Criminal Justice Act 1991.
Alternatives to Custody Become
prison sentences for which the alter-
Replacements for Custody
native was not used. If a community
service order of some 240 hours was
By now sentencers and probation staff
thought to be equivalent to about 12
are aware
of the thresholds and the use
months of
of matrices
imprisonment, it follows
to establish proportionali-
that those who
would have received up
ty and offence seriousness. The key
to twelve months’
question is how and what is the CJ Act
imprisonment pre CJ
Act
1991 intended
1991 are no
to change. The key con-
longer considered to
have committed offences ’so serious’
cepts of ’just deserts’ combined with
community orders becoming...
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