Andrew Ashworth
Biographic Data
| ID | 5147048 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Andrew Ashworth |
| GIVEN NAMES | Andrew |
| FAMILY NAME | Ashworth |
| SIGNATURE | ASHWORTH A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Oxford |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5700-6337 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 26 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 36 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 4 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1984 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Reassessing Actus Reus
This article focuses on Tony Smith's criticisms of criminal lawyers' use of the concept of actus reus. It explores how those criticisms relate to the proliferation of types of actus reus in the last five decades, especially in connection with the spread of offences of omission
The Rise and Restraint of the Preventive State
Security has always been a core function of the modern state. Yet the rise of the Preventive State captures an intensification of that role as threats to security and demands for public protection increase, prompting states to prioritize new practices of preventive criminalization, policing, and punishment. The rise of the Preventive State may promise greater security, but the costs of ever more coercive preventive laws and measures are burdensom…
Sentencing the Multiple Offender
This chapter discusses the principle of custodial sentencing for multiple offenders, focusing primarily on the jurisdiction of England. In England, the tools for determining custodial sentences in the case of multiple offending are threefold: concurrent sentences, consecutive sentences, and the totality principle. Custodial sentences imposed on the same sentencing occasion in England cannot overlap. This means that the total sentence must always …
Prisons, Proportionality and Recent Penal History
A leading aim of the Criminal Justice Act 1991 was to install the principle of proportionality as the primary rationale for sentencing and to bring about a reduction in the use of imprisonment. In the decade that followed the prison population in England and Wales rose steeply. This article examines the reasons for the rising use of prison, in order to assess whether proportionality (or ‘just deserts’) was tried and failed. It argues that in prac…
The Evolution of Sentencing Policy and Practice in England and Wales, 2003–2015
Sentencing in England and Wales has evolved in a direction apart from other common law countries. Although sentencing problems found in many Western nations are present, legislative and judicial responses have been very different. The use of custody rose steeply in the 1990s and has remained stable around that level in recent years. Crimes of violence and sexual aggression have, however, attracted increasingly longer sentences. The other principa…
Sentencing and Criminal Justice
Now in its sixth edition, Sentencing and Criminal Justice has been extensively rewritten to reflect recent legislation, guidelines and judicial decisions. New material includes comparative sentencing research, which looks at models from other countries in comparison with the approach in England and Wales, and an additional chapter focusing on civil preventive orders and other ancillary orders. Written with clarity of expression coupled with criti…
Preventive Justice
"States today are increasingly using criminal law or criminal law-like tools to try to prevent or reduce the risk of anticipated future harm. Such measures include criminalizing conduct at an early stage in order to allow authorities to intervene; incapacitating suspected future wrongdoers; and imposing extended or indefinite sentences on past wrongdoers on the basis of their predicted future conduct - all in the name of public protection and sec…
Sentencing Guidelines: Exploring the English Model
This volume is the first devoted to exploring the definitive sentencing guidelines in England and Wales. Although there is a vast literature on sentencing guidelines across the United States, the English guidelines have attracted almost no attention from scholars. The book will be of interest to many countries since the English guidelines represent the only alternative to the US schemes. A number of other jurisdictions have expressed a desire to …
Ignorance of the Criminal Law, and Duties to Avoid it: Ignorance of the Criminal Law, and Duties to Avoid it
‘Ignorance of the law is no defence,’ so we are told from an early stage in our legal studies. Or, to be more accurate, ‘ignorance of the criminal law is no defence to a criminal charge.’ That appears to be the rule in this country, apart from a couple of well-established exceptions and another possible one. I will argue that it is a preposterous doctrine, resting on insecure foundations within the criminal law and on questionable propositions ab…
Sentencing and Criminal Justice
Andrew Ashworth expertly examines the key issues in English sentencing policy and practice including the mechanisms for producing sentencing guidelines. He considers the most high-profile stages in the criminal justice process such as the Court of Appeal's approach to the custody threshold, the framework for the sentencing of young offenders and the abiding problems of previous convictions in sentencing. Taking into account the Criminal Justice a…
Four Threats to the Presumption of Innocence
This article sets out to re-examine the rationale for the presumption of innocence, and then assesses four contemporary threats to the presumption—through confinement, by defining offences so as to reduce the presumption's impact; erosion, by recognising more exceptions; evasion, by introducing more civil and hybrid procedures; and side-stepping, by increasing restrictions on liberty to little short of its full deprivation
Sentencing and Criminal Justice
1. An introduction to English sentencing 2. Sentencing and the constitution 3. Sentencing aims, principles and policies 4. Elements of proportionality 5. Aggravation and mitigation 6. Persistence, prevention and prediction 7. Equality before the law 8. Multiple offenders 9. Custodial sentencing 10. Non-custodial sentencing 11. Procedural issues and ancillary orders 12. Special sentencing powers 13. Conclusions.
Proportionate Sentencing: Exploring the Principles
The principle that a sentence should be proportionate to the seriousness of the offence remains at the centre of penal practice and scholarly debate. This book explores highly topical aspects of proportionality theory that require examination and further analysis. The book explores the relevance of the principle of proportionality to the sentencing of young offenders, the possible reasons for departing from the principle when sentencing dangerous…
Sentencing and Criminal Justice
Providing unrivalled coverage of one of the most high-profile stages in the criminal justice process, this book examines the key issues in sentencing policy and practice. It provides an up-to-date account of the legislation on sentencing together with the ever-increasing amount of Court of Appeal case law. The law in relation to elements of the wider criminal justice system is examined, including the prison and probation services. The aim of the …
Criminal Justice Act 2003: The Sentencing Provisions
The 1990s began with the enactment of the first general sentencing statute for over 40 years: the CriminalJustice Act 1991. The broad purpose of the Act was to bring about a form of proportionality in sentencing recognising a hierarchy of penalty levels, from fine up to community sentences and thence to custody; requiring ajudgement of seriousness before fixing the penalty level; reserving custodial sentences for serious cases; but, by way of exc…
Disproportionate Sentences as Human Rights Violations
The article explores the concepts of disproportionality and gross disproportionality in sentencing. Several constitutions or human rights documents prohibit grossly disproportionate sentences, either expressly or impliedly. The draft constitution of the European Union has a Charter of Fundamental Rights that includes the right not to be subjected to a disproportionate sentence. The possible meaning and application of this are discussed by referen…
The criminological foundations of penal policy: Essays in honour of Roger Hood
Responsibilities, Rights and Restorative Justice
Restorative justice is much advocated as a new and fruitful response to offending. This article argues for further debate about the proper division of functions between state, victims, offenders and 'communities', and for greater emphasis upon procedural safeguards and substantive limits in the pursuit of the apparently beneficent goals of restorative justice.
Rethinking English Homicide Law
The law of homicide is probably the most high-profile area of the criminal law, and yet in recent years it has been relatively neglected by law-reform agencies. This book brings together six English criminal lawyers to discuss the future shape of the English law of homicide, and deals with such important topics as the definition of murder, the relevance of mental-abnormality provocation, unintentional killings, defences, and sentencing. It also c…
Testing Fidelity to Legal Values: Official Involvement and Criminal Justice
The article examines the current criminal law and possible justifications for it with respect to three areas that are located between prosecutorial discretion and defences. These areas are officially‐induced mistakes of law, entrapment, and conduct motivated by a desire to bring someone else to justice or to restore property. Common themes in the justifications for the avoidance of punishment in these examples suggest an underlying principle of f…
Fundamentals of Sentencing Theory: Essays in Honour of Andrew von Hirsch
PART I: FOUNDATIONS OF THE POWER TO PUNISH PART II: TROUBLESOME ISSUES IN SENTENCING THEORY PART III: RELATING THEORY TO CONTEMPORARY PUNISHMENT PRACTICE
The Criminal Process: An Evaluative Study
Desert and the Three Rs
(1993). Desert and the Three Rs. Current Issues in Criminal Justice: Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 9-12
Sentencing Reform Structures
Sentencing reforms have been implemented or considered in recent years in Europe, North America, and Australia. Major initiatives have been undertaken in the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and various Canadian provinces and Australian and American states. Most have been efforts to reduce sentencing disparities, among other and differing goals. Constitutional objections to limitation or elimination of judicial discretion have seldom be…
Criminal Justice and the Criminal Process
Journal Article CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND THE CRIMINAL PROCESS Get access ANDREW ASHWORTH, Oxford ANDREW ASHWORTH, Oxford *Fellow and Tutor in Law, Worcester College; Associate, Centre for Criminological Research, University of Oxford. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The British Journal of Criminology, Volume 28, Issue 2, Spring 1988, Pages 111–123, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.bjc.a047720 Published: …
Responsibilities, Rights and Restorative Justice
Restorative justice is much advocated as a new and fruitful response to offending. This article argues for further debate about the proper division of functions between state, victims, offenders and 'communities', and for greater emphasis upon procedural safeguards and substantive limits in the pursuit of the apparently beneficent goals of restorative justice.
The Rise and Restraint of the Preventive State
Security has always been a core function of the modern state. Yet the rise of the Preventive State captures an intensification of that role as threats to security and demands for public protection increase, prompting states to prioritize new practices of preventive criminalization, policing, and punishment. The rise of the Preventive State may promise greater security, but the costs of ever more coercive preventive laws and measures are burdensom…
Four Threats to the Presumption of Innocence
This article sets out to re-examine the rationale for the presumption of innocence, and then assesses four contemporary threats to the presumption—through confinement, by defining offences so as to reduce the presumption's impact; erosion, by recognising more exceptions; evasion, by introducing more civil and hybrid procedures; and side-stepping, by increasing restrictions on liberty to little short of its full deprivation
The Evolution of Sentencing Policy and Practice in England and Wales, 2003–2015
Sentencing in England and Wales has evolved in a direction apart from other common law countries. Although sentencing problems found in many Western nations are present, legislative and judicial responses have been very different. The use of custody rose steeply in the 1990s and has remained stable around that level in recent years. Crimes of violence and sexual aggression have, however, attracted increasingly longer sentences. The other principa…
Prisons, Proportionality and Recent Penal History
A leading aim of the Criminal Justice Act 1991 was to install the principle of proportionality as the primary rationale for sentencing and to bring about a reduction in the use of imprisonment. In the decade that followed the prison population in England and Wales rose steeply. This article examines the reasons for the rising use of prison, in order to assess whether proportionality (or ‘just deserts’) was tried and failed. It argues that in prac…
Criminal Justice Act 2003: The Sentencing Provisions
The 1990s began with the enactment of the first general sentencing statute for over 40 years: the CriminalJustice Act 1991. The broad purpose of the Act was to bring about a form of proportionality in sentencing recognising a hierarchy of penalty levels, from fine up to community sentences and thence to custody; requiring ajudgement of seriousness before fixing the penalty level; reserving custodial sentences for serious cases; but, by way of exc…
Ignorance of the Criminal Law, and Duties to Avoid it: Ignorance of the Criminal Law, and Duties to Avoid it
‘Ignorance of the law is no defence,’ so we are told from an early stage in our legal studies. Or, to be more accurate, ‘ignorance of the criminal law is no defence to a criminal charge.’ That appears to be the rule in this country, apart from a couple of well-established exceptions and another possible one. I will argue that it is a preposterous doctrine, resting on insecure foundations within the criminal law and on questionable propositions ab…
Disproportionate Sentences as Human Rights Violations
The article explores the concepts of disproportionality and gross disproportionality in sentencing. Several constitutions or human rights documents prohibit grossly disproportionate sentences, either expressly or impliedly. The draft constitution of the European Union has a Charter of Fundamental Rights that includes the right not to be subjected to a disproportionate sentence. The possible meaning and application of this are discussed by referen…
Criminal Justice and the Criminal Process
Journal Article CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND THE CRIMINAL PROCESS Get access ANDREW ASHWORTH, Oxford ANDREW ASHWORTH, Oxford *Fellow and Tutor in Law, Worcester College; Associate, Centre for Criminological Research, University of Oxford. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The British Journal of Criminology, Volume 28, Issue 2, Spring 1988, Pages 111–123, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.bjc.a047720 Published: …
Prosecution, Police and Public — A Guide to Good Gatekeeping
Some problems in deciding whether or not to prosecute a person against whom there is sufficient evidence are discussed, and it is argued that, as we move towards a reformed prosecution system, we do not know enough about the principles on which prosecution decisions are taken or ought to be taken. Thorough research is essential in order to satisfy members of society that the discretion is being exercised properly, and in order to provide greater …
Criminal Justice and the Criminal Process
Journal Article CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND THE CRIMINAL PROCESS Get access ANDREW ASHWORTH, Oxford ANDREW ASHWORTH, Oxford *Fellow and Tutor in Law, Worcester College; Associate, Centre for Criminological Research, University of Oxford. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The British Journal of Criminology, Volume 28, Issue 2, Spring 1988, Pages 111–123, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.bjc.a047720 Published: …
Sentencing Reform Structures
Sentencing reforms have been implemented or considered in recent years in Europe, North America, and Australia. Major initiatives have been undertaken in the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and various Canadian provinces and Australian and American states. Most have been efforts to reduce sentencing disparities, among other and differing goals. Constitutional objections to limitation or elimination of judicial discretion have seldom be…
Desert and the Three Rs
(1993). Desert and the Three Rs. Current Issues in Criminal Justice: Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 9-12
The Criminal Process: An Evaluative Study
Fundamentals of Sentencing Theory: Essays in Honour of Andrew von Hirsch
PART I: FOUNDATIONS OF THE POWER TO PUNISH PART II: TROUBLESOME ISSUES IN SENTENCING THEORY PART III: RELATING THEORY TO CONTEMPORARY PUNISHMENT PRACTICE
Rethinking English Homicide Law
The law of homicide is probably the most high-profile area of the criminal law, and yet in recent years it has been relatively neglected by law-reform agencies. This book brings together six English criminal lawyers to discuss the future shape of the English law of homicide, and deals with such important topics as the definition of murder, the relevance of mental-abnormality provocation, unintentional killings, defences, and sentencing. It also c…
Testing Fidelity to Legal Values: Official Involvement and Criminal Justice
The article examines the current criminal law and possible justifications for it with respect to three areas that are located between prosecutorial discretion and defences. These areas are officially‐induced mistakes of law, entrapment, and conduct motivated by a desire to bring someone else to justice or to restore property. Common themes in the justifications for the avoidance of punishment in these examples suggest an underlying principle of f…
Responsibilities, Rights and Restorative Justice
Restorative justice is much advocated as a new and fruitful response to offending. This article argues for further debate about the proper division of functions between state, victims, offenders and 'communities', and for greater emphasis upon procedural safeguards and substantive limits in the pursuit of the apparently beneficent goals of restorative justice.
The criminological foundations of penal policy: Essays in honour of Roger Hood
Disproportionate Sentences as Human Rights Violations
The article explores the concepts of disproportionality and gross disproportionality in sentencing. Several constitutions or human rights documents prohibit grossly disproportionate sentences, either expressly or impliedly. The draft constitution of the European Union has a Charter of Fundamental Rights that includes the right not to be subjected to a disproportionate sentence. The possible meaning and application of this are discussed by referen…
Sentencing and Criminal Justice
1. An introduction to English sentencing 2. Sentencing and the constitution 3. Sentencing aims, principles and policies 4. Elements of proportionality 5. Aggravation and mitigation 6. Persistence, prevention and prediction 7. Equality before the law 8. Multiple offenders 9. Custodial sentencing 10. Non-custodial sentencing 11. Procedural issues and ancillary orders 12. Special sentencing powers 13. Conclusions.
Proportionate Sentencing: Exploring the Principles
The principle that a sentence should be proportionate to the seriousness of the offence remains at the centre of penal practice and scholarly debate. This book explores highly topical aspects of proportionality theory that require examination and further analysis. The book explores the relevance of the principle of proportionality to the sentencing of young offenders, the possible reasons for departing from the principle when sentencing dangerous…
Sentencing and Criminal Justice
Providing unrivalled coverage of one of the most high-profile stages in the criminal justice process, this book examines the key issues in sentencing policy and practice. It provides an up-to-date account of the legislation on sentencing together with the ever-increasing amount of Court of Appeal case law. The law in relation to elements of the wider criminal justice system is examined, including the prison and probation services. The aim of the …
Criminal Justice Act 2003: The Sentencing Provisions
The 1990s began with the enactment of the first general sentencing statute for over 40 years: the CriminalJustice Act 1991. The broad purpose of the Act was to bring about a form of proportionality in sentencing recognising a hierarchy of penalty levels, from fine up to community sentences and thence to custody; requiring ajudgement of seriousness before fixing the penalty level; reserving custodial sentences for serious cases; but, by way of exc…
Four Threats to the Presumption of Innocence
This article sets out to re-examine the rationale for the presumption of innocence, and then assesses four contemporary threats to the presumption—through confinement, by defining offences so as to reduce the presumption's impact; erosion, by recognising more exceptions; evasion, by introducing more civil and hybrid procedures; and side-stepping, by increasing restrictions on liberty to little short of its full deprivation
Sentencing and Criminal Justice
Andrew Ashworth expertly examines the key issues in English sentencing policy and practice including the mechanisms for producing sentencing guidelines. He considers the most high-profile stages in the criminal justice process such as the Court of Appeal's approach to the custody threshold, the framework for the sentencing of young offenders and the abiding problems of previous convictions in sentencing. Taking into account the Criminal Justice a…
Ignorance of the Criminal Law, and Duties to Avoid it: Ignorance of the Criminal Law, and Duties to Avoid it
‘Ignorance of the law is no defence,’ so we are told from an early stage in our legal studies. Or, to be more accurate, ‘ignorance of the criminal law is no defence to a criminal charge.’ That appears to be the rule in this country, apart from a couple of well-established exceptions and another possible one. I will argue that it is a preposterous doctrine, resting on insecure foundations within the criminal law and on questionable propositions ab…
Sentencing Guidelines: Exploring the English Model
This volume is the first devoted to exploring the definitive sentencing guidelines in England and Wales. Although there is a vast literature on sentencing guidelines across the United States, the English guidelines have attracted almost no attention from scholars. The book will be of interest to many countries since the English guidelines represent the only alternative to the US schemes. A number of other jurisdictions have expressed a desire to …
Preventive Justice
"States today are increasingly using criminal law or criminal law-like tools to try to prevent or reduce the risk of anticipated future harm. Such measures include criminalizing conduct at an early stage in order to allow authorities to intervene; incapacitating suspected future wrongdoers; and imposing extended or indefinite sentences on past wrongdoers on the basis of their predicted future conduct - all in the name of public protection and sec…
Sentencing and Criminal Justice
Now in its sixth edition, Sentencing and Criminal Justice has been extensively rewritten to reflect recent legislation, guidelines and judicial decisions. New material includes comparative sentencing research, which looks at models from other countries in comparison with the approach in England and Wales, and an additional chapter focusing on civil preventive orders and other ancillary orders. Written with clarity of expression coupled with criti…
The Evolution of Sentencing Policy and Practice in England and Wales, 2003–2015
Sentencing in England and Wales has evolved in a direction apart from other common law countries. Although sentencing problems found in many Western nations are present, legislative and judicial responses have been very different. The use of custody rose steeply in the 1990s and has remained stable around that level in recent years. Crimes of violence and sexual aggression have, however, attracted increasingly longer sentences. The other principa…
Sentencing the Multiple Offender
This chapter discusses the principle of custodial sentencing for multiple offenders, focusing primarily on the jurisdiction of England. In England, the tools for determining custodial sentences in the case of multiple offending are threefold: concurrent sentences, consecutive sentences, and the totality principle. Custodial sentences imposed on the same sentencing occasion in England cannot overlap. This means that the total sentence must always …
Prisons, Proportionality and Recent Penal History
A leading aim of the Criminal Justice Act 1991 was to install the principle of proportionality as the primary rationale for sentencing and to bring about a reduction in the use of imprisonment. In the decade that followed the prison population in England and Wales rose steeply. This article examines the reasons for the rising use of prison, in order to assess whether proportionality (or ‘just deserts’) was tried and failed. It argues that in prac…
The Rise and Restraint of the Preventive State
Security has always been a core function of the modern state. Yet the rise of the Preventive State captures an intensification of that role as threats to security and demands for public protection increase, prompting states to prioritize new practices of preventive criminalization, policing, and punishment. The rise of the Preventive State may promise greater security, but the costs of ever more coercive preventive laws and measures are burdensom…
Political science (25 works) · Law (24 works) · Criminology (21 works) · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis (19 works) · Sociology (17 works) · Psychology (13 works) · Criminal justice (12 works) · Criminal law (10 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · Criminal Law and Evidence (8 works)