Myths and misconceptions : public opinion versus public judgment about sentencing

Karen Gelb

    Research output: Chapter in Book / Conference PaperChapter

    Abstract

    The Victorian Sentencing Advisory Council (Freiberg, this volume; McCarthy, this volume) has, as one of its statutory functions, the gauging of public opinion (Sentencing Act200! (Vic) s IOS(I)(d)). In 2005, soon after its establishment and pursuant to this mandate, the Council initiated a year-long project to ascertain and analyse the current state of knowledge about public opinion on sentencing on both a national and international level. The project was designed to examine and critically evaluate both the substantive issues in the area (what we know about public opinion on sentencing) and the methodological issues in this field (how we measure public opinion on sentencing). The ultimate goal of the project was the creation of a suite of methodological tools that could be used to gauge public opinion on the wide range of issues that form the work of the Council. This chapter presents the findings of this project (Gelb, 2006). In particular, analyses of both the substantive and methodological issues in the field are presented, with a discussion of ways to progress the capacity of the Council to gauge public opinion on sentencing in Victoria.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationPenal Populism, Sentencing Councils and Sentencing Policy
    EditorsArie Frieberg, Karen Gelb
    Place of PublicationU.K.
    PublisherWillan
    Pages68-82
    Number of pages15
    ISBN (Print)9781843922780
    Publication statusPublished - 2008

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