Report on ‘Sentencing of Parents’ event

A report on the ‘Sentencing of Parents’ discussion hosted by the Council is now available as part of our ongoing programme to increase awareness and understanding of all aspects of sentencing.

The report outlines the presentations and discussion of the engagement event which was attended by academics as well as interested organisations including Families Outside, the Prison Reform Trust, Together, the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland and the Sentencing Group for Northern Ireland.

The Council will now consider the issues raised in the discussion, such as:

• how parental caring responsibilities should be taken into account during the sentencing process
• to what extent such responsibilities should influence sentencing decisions
• how other jurisdictions have addressed this issue
• whether there may be a role for the court to seek additional information about children who may be affected by sentencing decisions.

Read the full report. 

Also available is the presentation given at the event by Dr Shona Minson from the Centre for Criminology at Oxford University. She also represented the Prison Reform Trust at the event.