Number 26 — Sentencing trends for armed robbery and robbery in company: The impact of the Guideline in R v Henry

 Sentencing trends for armed robbery and robbery in company: The impact of the Guideline in R v Henry

On 12 May 1999, following submissions by the Crown, the Full Bench of the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal (CCA) handed down its second guideline judgment in R v Henry Barber Tran Silver Tsoukatos Kyroglou Jenkins (Henry). This guideline judgment was directed at the offences of armed robbery and robbery in company, pursuant to s 97(1) of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW). Like the first guideline judgment of R v Jurisic, the impetus for the CCA's decision to issue the second guideline judgment was the dual concerns of systematic excessive leniency and inconsistency in sentencing practice.
This study:

• sets out the principal factors that influenced the CCA's decision to issue a guideline judgment for armed robbery and robbery in company under s 97(1) of the Crimes Act
• provides an overview of the guideline
• outlines the methodology used in the study, including details of the time frame, types of data and statistical analysis
• presents the results of the data analysis and outlines the effects of the Henry guideline judgment on sentencing practice for the offences of armed robbery and robbery in company.

It is beyond the scope of this study to examine in detail all the various factors that either aggravate or mitigate the sentence imposed in robbery offences. An in-depth analysis of all robbery offences subject to s 97 of the Crimes Act will be included in a forthcoming monograph.