Methods and Data in Sentencing Research: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches

REPORT

The Centre for Criminological Research convened a two-day workshop on methods and data in sentencing research, organised by David Hayes, on 11 and 12 July 2019. The conference was convened to create a space for international discussions of methodology in sentencing-based research, an area that has traditionally been dominated by single-jurisdictional normative and theoretical work.

The conference involved fifteen papers from researchers from the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Slovenia, and Spain, and with representatives from the Sentencing Council for England and Wales and the Scottish Sentencing Council. Papers were delivered on themes including judicial decision-making, fairness and consistency in sentencing, and democracy and punitiveness. There were also panels on theorising and conceptualising sentencing, and on methodological challenges in researching sentencing.

The conference was an opportunity to inaugurate a new international network on Empirical Research on Sentencing (ERoS), focussed on developing new links and facilitating networking, research methods training, and international collaboration between scholars researching the concept of sentencing (broadly defined). ERoS will complement existing research networks around sentencing research by allowing for a truly global focus, and by making a specific space for empirical analysis of sentencing matters.