George R. Mawhinney presents paper at ESC 2014 in Prague

Recently I attended the European Society for Criminology (ESC) 2014 Annual Conference in Prague to present some of my research. It was an honour to be accepted to speak at such a prestigious gathering of eminent academics from across the continent.

My paper looked at the impact Schedule 21, the statutory sentencing guidelines for murder, has had on the sentencing of another serious offence against the person, namely attempted murder. It charted developments from before the legislation was enacted in 2003, to the present day, via countless cases and even some sentencing guidelines for attempted murder itself. Along the way I sought to distill the approach of the Court of Appeal and how it may have changed through close scrutiny of every reported appeal against sentence for attempted murder, highlighting problems, issues, and inconsistencies along the way.

A number of other sentencing scholars presented at the conference too, including Professor Roberts of Oxford. Overall it was both an intellectually stimulating and enjoyable trip, for which I’m grateful to the School of Law for funding.

George R. Mawhinney