Today the Sentencing Council for England and Wales has published their annual survey on sentencing decisions in the Crown Court in 2011 today (http://sentencingcouncil.judiciary.gov.uk/facts/crown-survey-results-2011.htm).

In the additional tables it breaks down the factors into specific offending categories.

Only a year after its introduction, ‘Age/lack of maturity where it affects the responsibility of the offender’ was the most commonly used mitigating factor for many offences (in up to 43% of cases). 

In addition, part of this document looked at the impact of aggravating and mitigating factors on sentence length and likelihood of receiving a custodial sentence. It shows that where offenders have four or more aggravating factors present but no mitigating factors, 99 per cent were sent to immediate custody. Of offenders with four or more mitigating factors but no aggravating factors, 13 per cent were sentenced to immediate custody. The report breaks this down into greater detail.

The new report by T2A, Pathways from Crime, details how maturity can be identified, addressed and managed by agencies throughout the criminal justice process.

Meanwhile, the Law Society Gazette has covered the T2A Pathway’s report that the Crown Prosecution Service take the maturity of a young adult into account in charging decision-making http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/call-maturity-young-adult039-test-prosecution