Spotlight on sentencing

The authors of two new reports published by the Scottish Sentencing Council on sentencing in sexual offence cases involving rape and sexual assault, provide a summary of the reports and discusses their findings.  The literature reviews, were carried out by Dr Rachel McPherson, Mr Nicholas Burgess, Dr Jay Gormley and Professor Cyrus Tata of the School of Law at the University of Glasgow and the Centre for Law, Crime and Justice at the University of Strathclyde.

Blog post from Dr Rachel McPherson which discusses the recent Scottish Sentencing Council publication on ‘Sentence discounting: Sentencing and plea decision-making’ by Dr Jay Gormley, Dr Rachel McPherson and Professor Cyrus Tata Centre for Law, Crime & Justice, The Law School, University of Strathclyde. 

The Scottish Sentencing Council held a consultation workshop on the sentencing of young people at the Scottish Youth Parliament’s 70^th National Sitting on 27^th October 2019. Ryan Kelly,  Member of the Scottish Youth Parliament (MSYP) for Coatbridge and Chryston, helped to facilitate the workshop gives his thoughts about the event.

When sentences are imposed, those involved in the case – victims, those being sentenced and the families of both can sometimes struggle to fully understand the sentencing process.  So how can this be resolved? John Scott QC, former member of the Scottish Sentencing Council gives his view on how we can demystify sentencing.

As the Scottish Sentencing Council advertises for a new advocate member, the current advocate member Stephen O'Rourke speaks about his four years on the council.