This research programme looks at, sentencing the offender convicted of multiple concurrent crimes, and looking at multiple offences in the past (repeat offenders).
Most offenders appearing for sentence have multiple concurrent crimes or multiple previous crimes. This pattern is found in all countries. When the offender has been convicted of multiple crimes, the sentencing exercise becomes much more complicated. Assigning a sentence for each crime as though it were the only crime leads to very excessive punishments. For this reason courts around the world have devised different ways of sentencing an offender for many crimes rather than a single offence. Despite the prevalence and importance of the problem, there is only a limited scholarship on which to draw.
This research programme contains two projects, one looking at sentencing the offender convicted of multiple concurrent crimes, the other looking at multiple offences in the past (repeat offenders). Both projects involve legal and socio-legal scholars from a range of common law jurisdictions as well as original empirical research.
For information on this programme, please contact Professor Julian Roberts.
