Driving offences resulting in a fatality involve the most serious level of personal harm yet may occur in circumstances in which the culpability of the offender is low. For example, offenders convicted of careless or inconsiderate driving causing death are culpable of a transitory inattention to the road, albeit one with fatal consequences. This combination of low culpability and grave harm creates a particular challenge for individual sentencers, as well as those responsible for devising sentencing guidelines. Courts must exercise great care in crafting an appropriate disposition and in explaining the sentence to victims and the community. Indeed, as the Road Traffic Safety Review noted over a generation ago, these offences have created particular difficulties for the law since the first appearance of the motorcar. For their part, sentencing guidelines authorities will have to juggle a number of potentially conflicting considerations when devising guidelines for these offences. One consideration for guidelines authorities is the reaction of the public, as culpable driving involving death provokes much concern in the community. There are several reasons for this. First, the sudden loss of life as a result of criminal conduct generates an exceptional degree of media interest in the sentencing of these offences. Second, the spontaneous reaction of members of the public to these cases is often very punitive, although as will be demonstrated in this article, this reaction may not accurately reflect public attitudes. The challenge for researchers is to explore the nature of informed public opinion. Third, the comments of relatives and friends of the direct victim are invariably very critical of the sentencing process and are often reported by the news media. These remarks can further inflame public criticism of sentencers. To date, our knowledge of public reaction to the sentencing of driving death offences has been exclusively anecdotal in nature and derived from news media coverage of high-profile cases. This article describes findings from research commissioned by the Sentencing Advisory Panel. The report, Attitudes to the sentencing of offences involving death by driving: Research Report 5, can be found at: http://www.sentencing.guidelines.gov.uk. The views expressed here are solely those of the authors, and do not necessarily represent those of the Panel. (Author/publisher)
Abstract