Offenders' perceptions of the sentencing process: a study of deterrence and stigmatisation in the New South Wales Children's Court.

The criminal court system remains society's pre-eminent response to criminal activity, despite recent innovations such as youth justice conferences. Little is known, however, about the impact of an appearance before court and, in particular, whether subjective reactions to the court process have any impact on recidivism. The current article reports the results of a longitudinal study conducted in the New South Wales (NSW) Children's Court. Two hundred and six young offenders were interviewed immediately after the conclusion of their sentencing hearing using a questionnaire designed to measure the extent to which they perceived the court hearing to be a deterrent, and the extent to which they felt either stigmatised of reintegrated by the experience of being sentenced. Other factors measured included the developmental background of the young person, their academic record, peer influence, and licit and illicit drug use. Participants with previous convictions and who felt stigmatised by the hearing were more likely to reoffend, while participants rating their likelihood of arrest in the event of future offending as high, and who reported that the sentence they received would prevent future offending, were less likely to reoffend. Some evidence was obtained, therefore, to support both deterrence and labelling theory.

Keywords: juvenile delinquency, recidivism, juvenile court

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An appearance before court remains society's preeminent response to criminal activity, regardless of the recent emergence of alternatives such as youth justice conferences (Chan, Bargen, Luke, & Clancey, 2004; Luke & Lind, 2002). Large numbers of people continue to be dealt with by the criminal courts every year. In 2005, for instance, there were 139,407 people dealt with by the New South Wales (NSW) Local Court, while 8,428 young people were dealt with by the NSW Children's Court (NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, 2006). What impact such contact with the criminal justice system has is a matter of some controversy.

It is clear what effect an appearance before court should have: it should deter future offending. However, it has also been suggested that court can have the counterproductive effect of increasing future offending, by labelling the defendant as deviant (H.S. Becker, 1966; Braithwaite, 1989; Lemert, 1972). It is also possible that court has little or no effect, and that any subsequent criminal activity by the sanctioned offender is determined by factors that precede the age of criminal responsibility.

These competing claims offer little assistance to either policy makers or researchers. The aim of the current research project is therefore twofold: firstly, to determine what impact, if any, an appearance before the criminal court has; and secondly, to test the relative merits of predictions made by deterrence and labelling theorists as explanatory accounts of offending subsequent to the court hearing. Specifically, the present article will report the results of a longitudinal study examining subjective reactions to an appearance before the NSW Children's Court, and the extent to which variations in these reactions predict recidivism in the sample.

Deterrence Theory