Sentencing Reform and Penal Change : The Victorian experience

Arie Freiberg, Professor of Criminology, University of Melbourne and Stuart Ross, Director, National Centre for Crime and Justice Statistics, have combined to examine the relationship between sentencing law and policy as it has evolved in Victoria over more than a century. In this major addition to the Australasian Studies in Criminology Series, they outline the relationship between sentencing reform and penal change: how sentencing systems develop and operate; how and why certain sanctions are created, how they are implemented and how they interact with each other. They focus primarily upon the impact of the 1991 and 1993 legislative reforms: how successful have been intensive corrections orders? Community work orders? Boot camps? Curfew orders? What impact have these new sanctions had upon the use of existing ones such as imprisonment, bonds and fines? The authors argue that legislative sentencing reform and its effects can only be understood as one element in a larger set of institutional, political and demographic factors which influence the criminal justice system as a whole. They draw comparisons with other Australian Statesand experience overseas where their findings and analysis have great relevance.