The dangerous offender provisions of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 and their implications for psychiatric evidence in sentencing violent and sexual offenders

Abstract

Psychiatric evidence is used to assist in the sentencing of a significant minority of violent and sexual offenders. Historically, indeterminate sentences have been reserved for those offenders demonstrating mental instability. The Criminal Justice Act 2003 (‘the Act’) introduces a range of new sentences for dangerous offenders and a statutory test of ‘dangerousness’. It extends indeterminate sentences to a broader group of offenders and removes much judicial discretion in sentencing violent and sexual offenders. However, in early cases the courts have been disinclined to follow more radical interpretations of the Act. It is contended that in many future cases expert psychiatric evidence will be used to support or undermine the new assumption of dangerousness. It appears that expert psychiatric evidence needs to address risk within the framework and terminology of the Act. This paper will summarise the Act and review the emerging case law relevant to psychiatric evidence before considering the information from which an expert witness will benefit in such cases.