Proposed new guidelines by the Sentencing Council could mean that sex offenders will get longer prison sentences, particularly if they film the treatment of their victims.
The Sentencing Council aims to promote greater consistency in sentencing, whilst maintaining the independence of the judiciary and it draws up complex guidelines to assist judges.
A new consultation, which it launched yesterday (November 6th 2012) and lasts for 14 weeks, suggests that judges should consider the long-term complex and damaging effect that offenders’ crimes has on a victim even when he or she comes forward many years after the crime has been committed.
Its draft sentencing guideline, which covers a large number of offences including rape, child sex offences, indecent images of children, trafficking and voyeurism, proposes a variety of changes to how offending is dealt with by the courts.
In the consultation, the Council says that judges should be able to send offenders to jail for longer where modern technology proves to be an aggravating factor in increasing the victim’s suffering, such as filming abuse of an assault and then distributing it to others, as judges are concerned about the worrying increase in the number of cases brought before them where rapists have filmed their attack.
Until now, the focus in sentencing has been largely on the physical aspects of the crime because the law defines each individual offence in a technical way, but the new guidelines make it clear that this form of sentencing does not take sufficient account of the long-term mental suffering of the victim.
The new guidelines aim to help judges take into account the whole context of the assaults, from the physical violence to the tactics of the perpetrators, as well as the physical and mental legacy left to the victims in these complex, sensitive and serious crimes.