Justice in sentencing: are courts getting 'softer' on criminals?

"Sentences are far more severe than they used to be... A lot of the people who complain about sentences don't know what sentences are and think there was a golden age when they were much longer, when actually the reverse is true."

Ken Clarke, Home Affairs select committee hearing, 25 October 2011

Justice Secretary Ken Clarke has faced some criticism from backbenchers and the press — in particular the Sun through its "No to Soft Justice" campaign — for failing to take a tough enough stance on punishing criminals.

This week he returned to the controversial topic of sentencing, with the Government announcing plans to scrap indeterminate Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences while lengthening the length of time offenders can be locked up for the most serious crimes.

But is the perception that the UK has gone 'soft' on criminal justice nothing but a myth? That was the claim made by Mr Clarke when he appeared before the Home Affairs select committee yesterday.

Analysis

The Ministry of Justice publishes breakdowns of sentence lengths as part of its annual Sentencing Statistics bulletin.

While these give the average sentence lengths for the previous decade, the series only stretches back to 2007 when the MoJ was set up. This means that data is only available from 1997 onwards. (We've contacted MoJ to ask if they are able to provide us with earlier data, but as yet they have not done so.)

Looking at these figures, we can see that in 1997 the average sentence length was 12.7 months (if we include all sentences handed out at crown and magistrates' courts), while in 2009 this had risen to 13.7 months.

Over the same period, the proportion of offenders seen in these courts given custodial sentences rose from 6.8 per cent to 7.2 per cent.

If we look specifically at the more serious offenders sentenced in crown courts, the rise in average sentence lengths is even bigger, from 22.6 months in 1997 to 24.3 months.

(It is worth noting here that average sentence stats have not included IPPs since their introduction in 2005, meaning that some of the most serious offenders that were counted beforehand are now omitted. The MoJ notes that: "This may result in a reduction in average custodial sentence lengths.")

In the absence of official data going back further than 1997, we also took a look at some academic studies undertaken into sentencing trends.

In 2003 the Criminal Policy Research Unit at South Bank University and the Prison Reform Trust conducted some research into sentencing trends since 1991.

This found that: "The increases in custody rates and sentence length strongly suggest that sentencers have become more severe."

This, it noted, was a conclusion shared by the members of the judiciary surveyed as part of the study:

"The five members of the senior judiciary who took part in the study were unanimous in saying that sentencing practice had become more severe, and that this was at least in part a response to political and media pressure on judges and magistrates."

This might suggest that the 'myth' of softening justice alluded to by the Secretary of State might actually be playing a role in driving sentences up.

Conclusion

On the basis of the available evidence, it seems that average sentence lengths have been increasing for the past 20 years, as Ken Clarke claims.

Furthermore the research from the Criminal Policy Research Unit at South Bank University suggests that the use of custodial sentences has also risen since 1991 in both crown and magistrates courts.

Whether 1991 is the perceived 'golden age' that Ken Clarke references however is moot, and for a fuller analysis we would need data stretching back farther than what is currently in the public domain.