Judges Urged to Consider ‘Deprived Backgrounds’ of Criminals

Judges in England and Wales will have to consider if criminals have come from a “difficult” or “deprived” family background before sentencing them, following a recommendation by the Sentencing Council. In 2021 the Sentencing Council commissioned the University of Hertfordshire (UH) to conduct research into equality and diversity in the criminal justice system. One of the recommendations in the UH report, which was published last year, was that judges should “consider including ‘difficult/deprived backgrounds’, ‘in work or training’ and ‘loss of job or reputation’” when they sentenced people for theft and robbery offences. The Sentencing Council then proposed new guidelines for all offences which said, “Courts should consider that different groups within the criminal justice system have faced multiple disadvantages which may have a bearing on their offending.”...