How criminal courts fix punishment after conviction — from the seriousness assessment to the sentence itself — and the routes by which convictions and sentences can be challenged.
Once guilt is established, everything turns on how the court arrives at the sentence and whether that outcome can later be unpicked. This chapter works through the sentencing framework — the statutory purposes, the assessment of seriousness against the definitive guidelines, credit for a guilty plea and Newton hearings where the factual basis is disputed — and the information the court must have before passing sentence. It then surveys the available sentences from discharge to custody, taking in suspended sentences and release provisions, totality and ancillary orders, the limits on magistrates' powers and the distinct approach to youth offenders. Finally it maps the appeal routes: from the magistrates' court to the Crown Court or by way of case stated, from the Crown Court to the Court of Appeal on the safety of the conviction, and onwards through unduly lenient sentence references, the Supreme Court and the Criminal Cases Review Commission.
