Law Weblog

Sentencing Guidelines Council under attack

In April 2006 the Sentencing Guidelines Council said that men who used violence against their partners should be sentenced to rehabilitation classes or community orders in some circumstances, they said,
“Rather than the imposition of a short custodial sentence, an appropriate disposal in such situations might be a suspended sentence order or a community order, in either case with a requirement to attend a domestic violence programme.”

The Metropolitan Police Authority responded immediately saying:

“The proposals by the Sentencing Guidelines Council that those responsible for domestic violence could potentially escape custodial sentences for their brutality is a retrograde step and the Metropolitan Police Authority’s new Domestic Violence Board questions the logic and justice behind the suggestion.

“Rehabilitation classes or community orders should not be viewed as an alternative to custodial sentences – complementary perhaps, but the fact is that the individual responsible for the violence is committing a criminal act, leaving victims traumatised and vulnerable in their own homes, and we need to send out a strong message that it is simply unacceptable.”