TNAG-0263-FCO40-299-Problem-of-increase-in-crime-rate-in-Hong-Kong-1971 — Page 18

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A subjective judgment?

لسه

4.

no reason to question this view and corporal punishment may

well be the right answer for certain types of offence.

??

Mandatory Minimum Sentences (paras.12 and 13 of the Governor's letter)

13.

We have consulted the Home Office about the attitude in

this country to the imposition of mandatory minimum sentences

for certain categories of offence. They state that the idea is

occasionally canvassed here, but that the official view is that

minimum sentences are contrary to the long established principle

in the administration of justice that the Government and

Parliament should indicate the relative gravity of an offence by

prescribing the maximum penalty which is considered appropriate. Subject to that statutory limit the court itself should have

discretion to determine the penalty for an offence after taking

into account the circumstances of the case and of the individual

offender. In any category of offence there is bound to be a

wide variation in circumstances as between individual cases and

any failure to take such circumstances into account could not fail to cause injustice and hardship. Any proposal to introduce mandatory minimum sentences in this country would meet with the strongest resistance from judges and magistrates. The Home

Office view is that although one body of opinion might argue

that minimum sentences would serve as an extra incentive to

refrain from criminal activity, other more enlightened opinion would be likely to maintain that it was not so much the severity as the certainty of punishment which exerted a deterrent effect.

14,

In Great Britain the only exceptions to the above general principle are (so far as the Homg Office are avare) the mandatory penalty of life imprisonment on conviction for murder and mandatory disqualification from driving on conviction of certain motoring offences. In these cases special considera-

tions are held to apply. Recent legislation enacted in Northern Ireland, under which persons convicted of certain offences com- mitted during the period of the present emergency receive minimum sentences of imprisonment, is reported to be presenting

certain problems.

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