Riot jail sentences in UK courts up to three times longer than average

[n2doc]

Paul Lewis, James Ball and Matthew Taylor
guardian.co.uk, Monday 5 September 2011 15.00 BST


Rioters sentenced in crown courts have received jail terms that are much more severe than usual, replicating the punitive response by magistrates, the Guardian can reveal.

An exclusive analysis of crown court cases against those convicted of involvement in last month's riots shows some sentences are nearly three times the average jail terms handed down for the same offences.

The data, part of a Guardian database covering more than 70% of the defendants processed through English courts for offences linked to the disorder, indicates that crown court judges have been even more willing to treat involvement in the riots as an aggravating factor than their counterparts in magistrates courts.

The database of 1,100 riot-related defendants will form part of a landmark study announced on Monday into the causes and consequences of the riots. The Guardian and the London School of Economics have launched Reading the Riots, for which researchers will interview hundreds of people involved in the disturbances in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool and Gloucester. The first empirical study into the widespread rioting and looting is supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Open Society Foundations.

more

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/sep/05/riot-jail-sentences-crown-courts

[dipsydoodle]

1. Where the charges were

aggravated burglary and the associated offenses of conspiracy, accessory to etc you may well find that penalties in the US would have been even higher.