Publications
All information published by the Council, including the Council's business plans and annual reports, can be accessed on this page.
Further details about the classes of information published by the Council, and how to access that information, are available in the Guide to information published by the Scottish Sentencing Council.
Sentence discounting sentencing and plea decision-making literature review (1mb)
A literature review by Dr Jay Gormley, Dr Rachel McPherson and Professor Cyrus Tata of the Centre for Law, Crime & Justice, The Law School, University of Strathclyde, examines how sentence discounting, works both in Scotland and in other jurisdictions around the world.
The development of cognitive and emotional maturity in adolescents and its relevance in judicial contexts (1mb)
In order to inform its development of a guideline on sentencing young people, the Scottish Sentencing Council asked the University of Edinburgh to carry out a systematic review of the current neurological, neuropsychological, and psychological evidence on the cognitive maturity of younger people.
Mental welfare report (123kb)
The Scottish Sentencing Council has published a report following a roundtable discussion it held with stakeholders on the sentencing of people with mental welfare difficulties.
Report of focus groups on youth offending and sentencing (104kb)
A summarised evaluation of the public perceptions of youth offending and sentencing. This work was used to inform the Scottish Sentencing Council’s decision making and drafting around the ‘Sentencing young people’ guideline
Public perceptions of sentencing national survey report (1mb)
The Scottish Sentencing Council has published a new report exploring public knowledge and attitudes towards sentencing in Scotland, which was carried out by the independent research organisation Ipsos MORI.