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The New South Wales Sentencing Council is a body established by the New South Wales Government to provide guidelines and to promote consistency in sentencing of offenders in New South Wales, a state of Australia. The council provides advice and counsel to the Attorney General of New South Wales on issues relating to sentencing, parole periods for sentences, trends, and the operation of parole. The council aims to promote consistency and transparency in sentencing and promoting public understanding of the sentencing process.〔Debus〕 The Sentencing Council consists of members appointed by the attorney general. Those members are made up from a diverse background to better represent the views of the community. They include retired judges, law enforcement officers, defence lawyers, indigenous community members and persons associated with victims of crime. The council provides similar functions to other bodies in New South Wales and in Australia. For example, it may advocate law reform which overlaps the work of the New South Wales Law Reform Commission, or it may analyse statistics which overlaps the work of the Australian Bureau of Statistics. However, it differs fundamentally from other legal bodies in that it provides guidance and advice to government in that its focus is primarily criminal, and includes members who have direct and relevant experience with the criminal justice system. The council was the first of its type established in Australia. A similar body has been established in Victoria which is called the Victorian Sentencing Council. Outside of Australia, overseas council perform similar functions. The United States Sentencing Commission in the United States of America and the Sentencing Council in England and Wales are examples of bodies which consist primarily of judicial members, giving those bodies a judicial flavour. In contrast, the Sentencing Commission for Scotland is made up of parliamentarians, giving it a political flavour.〔Abadee p2〕 The New South Wales council attempts to balance each of these flavours by including a cross-section of the community within the council. ==History of sentencing councils== The Australian Law Reform Commission notes that there has been a history in common law countries of the use of specific commissions to advise and report on sentencing practices. In 1833 in the United Kingdom, commissioners were appointed to report on consolidating all crimes and the laws relating to crimes into one Act of Parliament. Over a fifteen-year period, the commissioners reported upon many issues and problems concerning punishment and sentencing in criminal matters. They made recommendations about the grading of penalties to suit the crime and also about limiting judicial discretion in the determination a penalty. Few of the recommendations however became law.〔ALRC 15 p268〕 In 1980, the Australian Law Reform Commission proposed the establishment of a national council to deal with federal offenders. This council was to be tentatively called the Australian Sentencing Council. The recommendation was not taken up by the Australian Government. In 1988, the commission recommended the establishment of a sentencing council within the Australian Institute of Criminology. Again, that recommendation was not taken up. In 2006, the commission reversed its view on the establishment of a national council and advocated that the existing federal institutions were adequate to provide advice and research. Primarily this was based on the view that the proposed council would duplicate and overlap existing bodies which provided crime statistics and law reform advice to the Australian Government. It however commended the work of the existing state based councils.〔ALRC 103〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「New South Wales Sentencing Council」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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