Judges' attitudes and perceptions toward the sentencing process

Abstract

Research into judicial attitudes and perceptions of sentencing is rare, and there are difficulties with permissions and access which discourage potential investigators. Because of this, there are virtually no precedents for this type of research. My interview based research involved Queensland judges, not only because I had practised and worked in that jurisdiction since the early 1980s, but also because Queensland adopted the model of the Victorian Sentencing Act and had not been previously studied. The research was ultimately published in a book by Federation Press, How Judges Sentence, 2005. When I was asked to speak on this topic today, I decided to highlight some interesting features of the research, and in particular to include some of the discussion by the judges which did not appear in the book, mainly for reasons of space. This paper therefore provides some thought provoking issues regarding judges and their interactions with the sentencing process, largely in their own words.