Conclusion

This chapter draws together the book’s common themes and considers their broader implications for the future development of sentencing policy. It concludes that contemporary sentencing policy should reflect shared goals and engage with social priorities for the common good, so restoring the essential link between penal ideology and the socially lived experience of crime and punishment. Structural changes are therefore required to empower decision-makers by facilitating a principled engagement with social value at the point of sentencing. However, these suggestions depend upon developing judicial discretionary power in sentencing, not restricting it. Ultimately therefore, the success of the book’s proposals for a more egalitarian and community focused sentencing system will depend upon the strategies policy-makers adopt to restore public confidence and trust in discretionary justice and its ability to engage with social justice issues. The book ends by exploring what this might entail.

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