The authors 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 intensive corrections orders been? 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 that influence the criminal justice system as a whole. They draw comparisons with other Australian States and experience overseas where their findings and analysis have great relevance.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Table of Legislation
Table of figures and tables
CHAPTER 1: The Process of Sentencing Reform
CHAPTER 2: The Evolution of Victorian Sentencing Law
CHAPTER 3: The Decline of the Prison
CHAPTER 4: Factors influencing Imprisonment Rates
CHAPTER 5: Sentencing Patterns and Imprisonment Rates
CHAPTER 6: Substitutional Sanctions
CHAPTER 7: Alternative Sanctions: Community Corrections Orders
CHAPTER 8: Financial and Other Sanctions
CHAPTER 9: Truth and its Consequences: the 1991 and 1993 Reforms to Sentence Administration
CHAPTER 10: Sentencing and Penal Change
Bibliography
Index