This report updates select data from the Sentencing Advisory Council’s 2012 report Sentencing Children and Young People in Victoria. Specifically, it focuses on offenders aged under 18 at the time of offending (and under 19 at the time of commencement of proceedings) who were sentenced in either the Children’s Court or the higher courts for...

This report is the Council’s response to the Victorian Attorney-General’s request for advice on the most effective legislative mechanism to provide sentencing guidance to courts in a way that promotes consistency of approach in sentencing offenders and public confidence in the criminal justice system.

This paper sets out the recent history of firearms offences, including the origins of the Firearms Act 1996 (NSW) in the aftermath of the Port Arthur massacre. It then outlines the distinction between non-strictly indictable and strictly indictable firearms offences, and considers the significance of that distinction on the sentencing of firearms offences. The role...

This report examines trends in setting non-parole periods for imprisonment sentences over the five years ending 30 June 2015. The report considers how the courts’ use of non-parole periods changed between 2010–11 and 2014–15 and the factors that influenced the length of non-parole periods imposed by the courts during this period.

This briefing paper describe the characteristics of those found guilty of breaching an Apprehended Domestic Violence Order (ADVO) in NSW in 2013 and the principal penalties they received.