Advanced Introduction to Sentencing (Elgar Advanced Introductions series)

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world’s leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas.

This essential Advanced Introduction provides an overview of the principles and practices of sentencing adult offenders in common law countries such as the UK, the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and South Africa. It explores how sentencing authority is distributed and the rationale and methods behind sentencing.

Adopting a multijurisdictional approach, Arie Freiberg and Julian Roberts examine the factors that common law courts consider when sentencing. They outline a variety of aggravating and mitigating circumstances, investigate how judges make their decisions and how guidance is provided to judges by various bodies including legislatures, appellate courts and sentencing commissions. The book further identifies the extensive range of sanctions that are available to courts, analysing their effectiveness and efficiency.

Key Features:

• Detailed coverage of all aspects of sentencing
• nternational research across a range of common law jurisdictions.
• Presents valuable insights drawn from the authors’ experiences of working on sentencing commissions and councils in common law jurisdictions over the past five decades.



Scholars and students of law, criminology, penology and public policy will greatly benefit from this highly informative Advanced Introduction. It is also a vital resource for practitioners and policymakers in criminal law and justice.

Arie Freiberg AM, Emeritus Professor, Faculty of Law, Monash University, Australia and Julian V. Roberts, KC (Hon), Emeritus Professor of Criminology, University of Oxford, UK