Alternatives to Prison: Exploring non-custodial sentencing of domestic violence offenders in NSW’s...

Alternatives to Prison:Exploring non-custodial sentencing of domestic violence offenders in NSW’s lower courts

Christine Bond & Samantha JeffriesSchool of Criminology and Criminal Justice

Griffith University

([email protected])

February 2015

School of Criminology & Criminal Justice

Background

Shifts in criminal justice responses to domestic violence

Scarcity of research on sentencing domestically violent offenders


Key research question

Are domestic violence offences sentenced differently from other violent offences?


Unique opportunity

NSW provides a unique opportunity in Australia

Domestic violence “flag”


Prior research

Limited comparative studies of sentencing domestic vs other violence» Absence of multivariate studies (in/out)» Restrictive samples (length of term)

Limited studies of non-custodial sentencing more generally


Current data

64,201 convictions

17.6% Indigenous

18.7% female

27.1% domestic violent-related

New South Wales adult lower court administrative data

January 2009 – June 2012

Most serious charged personal offence


Measuring sentencing outcomes

Domestic violence cases

(%)

Non-domestic violence cases

(%)

TotalCases

(%)

Imprisonment 9.7 10.5 10.3

Intensive/other detention 0.6 1.0 0.8

Supervised community-based 20.7 16.9 18.0

Unsupervised community-based 31.6 25.5 27.1

Community service 3.5 4.9 4.6

Monetary 11.1 26.1 22.0

Minor/nominal 22.8 15.1 17.2

Total 100.0 100.0 100.0

All between-group differences significant

at p<0.05 (N=64,201)


WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT SENTENCING TO PRISON?


Are domestic violence cases sentenced differently?

Imprisonment outcome

* All significant at p<0.05 (N=64,201)

(Odds ratios shown. Model estimated with constant & missing dummy [not shown]. Line represents equal odds.) Indigenous

Female

Age

2-4 prior appearances

5+ prior appearances

Offfence seriousness

Serious violence

Multiple counts

Released pre-trial

Trial

D.V. offence

0

0.4

0.8

1.2

1.6 2

2.4

2.8

3.2

3.6 4

4.4

4.8

5.2

5.6



Length of term

* p<0.05 (N=6,598)

(Estimated OLS coefficients shown. Model estimated with constant & missing dummy [not shown].) Indigenous*

Female*

Age*

2-4 prior appearances

5+ prior appearances*

Offfence seriousness*

Serious violence*

Multiple counts

Released pre-trial

Trial*

D.V. offence*

-1.4

-1.2 -1

-0.8

-0.6

-0.4

-0.2 0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8 1

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8 2

2.2

2.4

2.6

2.8


WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT SENTENCING TO NONCUSTODIAL ORDERS?



Compared to Imprisonment

Domestic violence vs other

violence

Intensive/other detention (vs imprisonment) 0.746*

Supervised community-based (vs imprisonment) 1.455*

Unsupervised community-based (vs imprisonment) 1.446*

Community service (vs imprisonment) 0.952

Monetary (vs imprisonment) 0.839*

Minor/nominal (vs imprisonment) 1.810** p<0.05 (N=64,201)

(Relative risk ratio shown. Adjusted for Indigenous status, sex, age, prior appearances, offence seriousness, serious violence, multiple counts, release pre-trial, and went to trial. Model estimated with constant).



Non-imprisonment sentencing outcomes

* All between-group significant at p<0.05 (N=64,201)

(Average predicted probabilities shown. Adjusted for Indigenous status, sex, age, prior appearances, offence seriousness, serious violence, multiple counts, release pre-trial, and went to trial. Model estimated with constant & missing dummy).

D.V. offence Other violent offence00.

050.

10.

150.

20.

250.

3

Community service

Supervised

Unsupervised

Intensive

Monetary Minor



Long suspended/ bond orders

* p<0.05 (N=28,946)

(Odds ratios shown. Model estimated with constant & missing dummy [not shown]. Line represents equal odds.)

Indigenous

Female*

Age

2-4 prior appearances*

5+ prior appearances*

Offfence seriousness*

Serious violence*

Multiple counts*

Released pre-trial*

Trial

D.V. offence

0.4 1

1.6

2.2

2.8

3.4 4

4.6

5.2

5.8

6.4 7

7.6

8.2

8.8

9.4 10

10.6

11.2

11.8

12.4 13

13.6

14.2

14.8

D.V. offence*

0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9


Summary(compared to similarly-situated other violent offences)

Imprisonment

On average, less likely to be sentenced to prison

Length of term

On average, less likely to receive “long” suspended/bond terms

Noncustodial Length of noncustodial

On average, shorter prison terms

On average, more likely to receive suspended/bond (vs

imprisonment) sentences


So what?

Does this mean can conclude leniency?» Complex process social/contextual factors?» Expectations around rehabilitation?» Misunderstandings of the nature of domestic violence

offending?

Adequacy of explanations of sentencing patterns?

Alternatives to Prison: Exploring non-custodial sentencing of domestic violence offenders in NSW’s...

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