Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council
The Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council provides independent research and advice, seeks public views and promotes community understanding of sentencing matters.
New podcast: Community correction orders — are they a smarter sentence?
Listen to the latest edition of our podcast Sentencing Matters, where we talk to Professor Lorana Bartels from the University of Canberra about the use of community correction orders.
Prof Bartels undertakes research in criminal law and criminology, with a particular focus on sentencing and corrections.
The podcast looks at how community correction orders are not being widely utilised by judicial officers — and asks how uptake could be improved.
Prof Bartels takes us through how appropriate use of these orders can lead to better outcomes for offenders and the community as a whole, while also alleviating rising prison populations and costs.
Why are young people sentenced differently to adults?
The Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council has expanded its flagship education platform Judge for Yourself with a new interactive case study exploring the complexities of the Childrens Court.
Judge for Yourself allows users to play the role of a judge or magistrate and learn about the challenges of sentencing offenders in our courts.
The new Childrens Court case study is based on a real-life teenager who has pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm.
Neuro-science tells us that young brains do not finish developing until young people are well past their teens. What then is the best option for our teenager, balancing the need to keep communities safe?
Hear the court case. Decide the sentence. Judge for Yourself.
New spotlights released: Magistrates, District and Supreme Courts
Two new Sentencing Spotlights on…offence and sentencing trends have been released, providing statistical information about offences and penalty outcomes for sentencing events involving adult offenders finalised in Queensland courts over the period 1 July 2005 to 30 June 2017.
The Sentencing Spotlights show Queensland courts sentenced more than 750,000 offenders in the 12-year reporting period.
Reflecting their role dealing with more serious offences, higher courts were more likely to use custodial penalties (76.8% of sentences) compared to Magistrates Courts (15.1%). Across both higher and Magistrates Courts, within the custodial penalty options, imprisonment was ordered most often with intensive correction orders used by sentencing judges least often.
While the use of custodial penalties in Magistrates Courts was steady from 2005–06 to 2009–10, it has since almost doubled from 10 per cent of all penalties in 2010–11, to 19 per cent in 2016–17.
View the Sentencing Spotlights on offence and sentencing trends