Consultation on proposals for new sentencing guidelines for sex offences

[EmmelineGoulden]

The Sentencing Council has come out with proposals to change guidelines on sentencing for sex offences to take greater account of the psychological impact of the crimes and to include consideration of things like videoing attacks as aggrevating factors. BBC article.

The proposal is open to public consultation until March 14, 2013. See:
The Sentencing Council Current Consultations webpage.

"Under the new guidelines, judges would also be able to jail those guilty of so-called "one-off" rapes for a maximum of 19 years, a sentence that is currently only for offenders who attack more than once. " That seems quite good because the implication is (especially with the quotes there) that rapists are likely to re-offend. Or perhaps they are beginning to recognise that these men are likely to have raped before, they just haven't been caught. Although that might be a moral minefield!!

But oh my eyes on the comments! The We believe You campaign hasn't reached BBC articles yet!

Open comments on news sites generally seem to be inhabited by a nasty minority of the population. Sorry about linking to an article with nasty ones, I tend not to read them.

In the consultation document it says that their research has shown the public are not at all comfortable identifying mitigating factors for sentencing:
"...the only broadly agreed mitigation being the mental capacity or mental health of the offender. ... This was felt to influence the nature not duration of the custodial sentence suggested, with an emphasis on treatment or care under supervision.?

So that's perhaps a bit more encouraging.