Units

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Sample subject outline - Semester 2 2012

Note: Subject outlines often change before the semester begins. Below is a sample outline.

Rationale

A knowledge of the principles of criminal law is fundamental to the practice of law. Building on from this are the principles and practice of sentencing offenders who have been found guilty of criminal offences. The sentencing of offenders is based on legal principles and criminological theories of punishment of offenders and such knowledge is important to the practice of criminal law. Although this unit is based on the principles underlying the sentencing process, there is also considerable emphasis on real world learning, particularly on the practical application of these principles in the sentencing process. This unit, offered as an elective at a later stage of the course, builds on knowledge gained in the core criminal law units.

Aims

The aim of this unit is to give you a thorough understanding of the principles and practice of sentencing.

Objectives

At the end of the unit you will be able to demonstrate:

1. An understanding of the role of sentencing in criminal law;
2. A knowledge of the theories of punishment which underlie the sentencing process; and to understand how they are used in practice;
3. Knowledge of the practice and procedure of sentencing;
4. A detailed working knowledge of the Penalties and Sentences Act 1992 (Qld), and an understanding of the sentencing provisions in the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth), and Juvenile Justice Act 1992 (Qld);
5. The ability to critically analyse sentencing decisions;
6. An ability to apply the principles of sentencing learned in the unit to new fact situations, and in particular be able to demonstrate this ability in the context of sentencing submissions;
7. Enhanced organisational and oral presentation skills (or written presentation skills in the case of external students), in particular persuasive speaking, advocacy skills and the ability to construct and deliver a legal argument;
8. An understanding how different sentencing principles apply to different types of offenders and the reason behind such difference; and
9. An understanding and sensitivity to particular groups participating in the sentencing process, such as indigenous offenders, and victims of crime.

Content

This unit seeks to examine in detail the principles underlying the sentencing of offenders, firstly by examining the theories of punishment and how they are employed in practice (for example, under the Penalties and Sentences Act 1992 (Qld)); and secondly, by looking at specific issues in sentencing; in particular, types of sentences and the sentencing hearing. The topic areas covered in this unit are listed below.

Introduction to principles of sentencing and sentencing procedures.

Concepts of punishment and justifications for punishment.

Sentencing offenders in Queensland - The Penalties and Sentences Act regime, including a comparison with sentencing law in other jurisdictions.

The sentencing hearing

Sentencing principles

Sentencing dispositions

Dangerous offenders

Sentencing indigenous offenders

Sentencing Commonwealth offenders

Sentencing juveniles

Victims of crime

Skills

This unit advances a number of skills to which you will already have been introduced in the earlier years of the course. These are: problem solving and critical analysis skills, oral and written communication, time management, and social and relational skills.

Some of these skills are explicitly assessed within the assessment criteria, in particular these are; written and oral communication skills; and advocacy and persuasive speaking skills. Further details of these and how they are incorporated are provided below in the discussion on assessment.

Approaches to Teaching and Learning

This unit has two contact hours per week, generally consisting of a one hour lecture and a one hour practical session. The teaching approaches in this unit are closely tied to the unit objectives, and are designed to enhance and foster deeper approaches to student learning.

The lecture will consist of the dissemination of information by way of Socratic method, together with integrated class discussion based on discussion questions in the Study Guide and Powerpoint slides (which are available before the class). This is linked to the first four unit objectives. For Weeks 1-3 of semester, the lecture will go for two hours, in order to cover adequate substantive content to prepare students for participation in the oral sentencing presentations. These two hour lectures will also involve class discussion of questions and problems which are contained in the LWB494 Study Guide.

The practical session will be linked more closely to the remainder of the unit objectives, while also furthering the first four. In particular, this part of the unit advances skills of critical analysis, oral communication and social/relational skills required of the criminal advocate. The practical sessions take place in Weeks 4-13 of semester.

The lectures and practical sessions will all be audio-streamed on the unit blackboard site for the benefit of external students.

The unit content is presented by way of Study Guide, prescribed and recommended readings, discussion, case analysiss and material delivered via the LWB494 Blackboard site. This includes the discussion forum and links to other online sites.

Assessment

Assessment for this unit contains both summative and formative components.

Assessment name: Class Participation
Description: Purpose
The purpose of this assessment is to enhance your learning in terms of the unit content, assist with oral communication skills, critical analysis, and social/relational skills. What you will be explicitly assessed on is the content of your contributions, based on the reading for that week. Further details of the assessment are provided below. Formative assessment will be given to you through feedback from your lecturer in class discussions, which will assist your learning and preparation for other assessment in this unit. Class participation assessment encourages you to attend formal classes and make active contributions which are of benefit to both your learning and that of other students. Class attendance is compulsory for internal students.

Details
You will be expected to have read the materials for that week, and make a contribution to the class discussion. This discussion will usually take place in the final 30 minutes of each week's class and will involve direct and focused attention on the guide questions set for that week in the Study Guide. You will be allocated 1 week in which you will be expected to lead the discussion and hence, to have prepared in significant depth. Anecdotal contributions, while welcome, will not constitute "class participation" for the purpose of allocating marks. Marks will be deducted for non-attendance at tutorials at a rate of 1 mark per missed class. These marks will be deducted from the class participation mark. For example: if student A receives 7/10 for class participation, but misses 2 classes, the total mark will be 5/10. A medical certificate or similar will be required to avoid the deduction of marks.

This is a guide to how the marks will generally be allocated (and a specific criterion referenced assessment grid will be available on the LWB494 Blackboard site):

• Excellent and consistent contribution to allocated tutorials/clear evidence of reading 9-10


• Significant and consistent contributions to allocated tutorials/clear evidence of reading 7-8


• Consistent contributions/evidence of reading 6-7


• Sporadic contributions but good evidence of preparation 6


• Limited contribution or anecdotal participation only 4-5


• Little or no contribution 0-3

The marks will be allocated over all the discussion tutorials but with particular emphasis on the week where you will be allocated to lead discussion.

Marks will be posted on the Blackboard site at the end of semester after moderation has taken place.
Relates to objectives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 9.
Weight: 10%
Internal or external: Internal
Group or individual: Individual
Due date: Throughout semester

Assessment name: Oral Sentencing Submissions
Description: Purpose
The purpose of this assessment is to enhance your learning of the unit content (particularly to put into practice the sentencing principles and knowledge which you will be acquiring during the semester), and to advance oral and written communication skills. What will be explicitly assessed will be unit content and oral communication skills for internal students; and unit content and written communication skills for external students.

This assessment has a large formative component in that a detailed feedback sheet is returned to you with the marked written notes of your submission. There is also class discussion after each sentencing hearing; however, this is not used to give specific feedback on your performance, but to discuss the issues raised in the sentencing scenario, so that the remainder of the class can also benefit from the discussion of the issues raised.

Details
1. Class presentations will be in the form of sentencing submissions or a sentencing judgment and will occur throughout the semester.
2. You will take part in a sentencing hearing at first instance (ie not appellate) as either defence counsel, prosecuting counsel or judge/magistrate. The final choice of role will be up to your tutor, although you will be encouraged to submit preferences for dates and the role to be played. These preferences will be accommodated wherever possible.
3. It is your responsibility to ensure that you have been allocated a presentation date and in actually give a presentation. Failure to do so will result in a mark of 0 (subject to rules on illness - see below).
4. You will receive the sentencing brief in class two weeks before the hearing, and will be expected to prepare in that time. It is your responsibility to ensure that you collect a copy of the brief two weeks before your presentation is due to take place. If you are unable to attend class, please make other arrangements to collect your brief.
5. Every attempt will be made to make the hearings as realistic as possible, and courtroom conditions will be observed.
6. Each student counsel or judge will be allocated 10 minutes. You will NOT be permitted to go over time, and you should plan your submission accordingly. After the submissions, the student judge allocated to the hearing will hand down sentence, and will be expected to give carefully researched reasons for the decision. As in real life, the judge will be permitted to interrupt counsel and ask questions where necessary, but interruptions should be kept to a minimum and only where absolutely necessary (eg to seek clarification). Unnecessary interruptions will be penalised. At the end of each sentencing hearing, there will be class discussion on the legal issues raised in the presentations.
7. Students should note that these Mock Court exercises will be tightly organised 30 minute exercises and that means each participant will need to be concise and very focused in their presentations. There will be no scope for simply reading a prepared script - attempting to do so will almost certainly result in your submissions not fitting into the prescribed time limit.
8. You will also be required to submit a written outline of argument in support of your submissions. This outline must be no more than 500 words in length, it must fit onto a single A4 page AND this will be the only document that students may refer to during their oral submissions (apart from the written brief given to you by the lecturer). As in actual legal practice, you will not be able to simply prepare a script and read it out to the court. Students acting as judge will prepare a 500 word outline of judgment, and similarly, can only refer to this document and the written briefs provided by the lecturer when delivering their oral judgment.
9. A detailed written feedback sheet on each presentation will be available the week after your presentation. Your mark will not be available until moderation at the end of semester.
10. If you are unable to attend class for your presentation on the allocated day, please contact your lecturer as soon as possible in advance, so that arrangements can be made for your replacement. A medical certificate or similar will be required to explain your absence or a mark of 0 will be allocated.
11. The facts available to the prosecution and defence counsel will differ. Both prosecution and defence will have a copy of the prosecution brief, based on information supplied by the police or briefing authority. Defence counsel will in addition have instructions from their client. Student judges will have a copy of both prosecution and defence instructions so that they can prepare a judgment in advance.
12. All submissions/judgments should be supported by reference to appropriate authorities (both caselaw and legislation).
13. In an effort to make the presentations as realistic as possible, you must NOT confer with others in your presentation group. If questions arise on the topics, these should be directed to the tutor as moderator who will advise the other presenters as necessary.
14. Each student delivering oral submissions will be required to submit their formal Outline of Argument or of their judgment to the lecturer immediately before the presentation. The submitted materials should be approximately 500 words. Footnotes should NOT be used as they are written notes of an oral presentation, not an essay. You must however give full and correct citations for ALL authorities relied on to support your submissions.
15. Marks for the sentencing submissions will be allocated taking into account the content of the presentation and the Outline of Argument. Marks for the class presentation will be allocated as follows:
Content: Including identification of issues, critical analysis, research skills, discussion of the relevant law, use of statute and authorities: 16/30
Presentation: Including logical presentation of argument, general presentation skills, advocacy skills and persuasive speaking, ability to answer questions: 8/20
Outline of argument: Including professional drafting skills, appropriate citation and structured use of authority: 6/20
14. Marks for the presentations will not be available until all presentations have been completed and marks moderated at the end of semester. They will be posted on the Blackboard site by student number, approximately one week after classes have ended. A detailed criterion referenced assessment grid for this assessment item will be available on the LWB494 Blackboard site.
Relates to objectives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.
Weight: 30%
Internal or external: Internal
Group or individual: Individual
Due date: See Description

Assessment name: Take Home Exam
Description: Purpose
The major piece of assessment (worth 60%) in this unit is a take home exam. The purpose of the take home exam is primarily to assess your learning in the unit; however, it does have formative components as well. Detailed comments are written on your paper so that you will receive clear feedback on your answers. This assessment tests your learning in the unit, and goes beyond merely repeating material which has been learned during the semester. The exam requires both conceptual and analytical thinking, and the ability to bring together different aspects of the unit content to draw conclusions about particular aspects of sentencing. Skills which are assessed either implicitly or expressly by this assessment are written communication skills including clarity of expression and the ability to build and sustain an argument, critical analysis, and time management and organisational skills as you must have, before the exam, a ready familiarity with the unit content in order to be able to answer the exam over the period of a weekend. There is a strict word limit on the exam of 2000 words which must NOT be exceeded. The take home exam will be available on the Blackboard site on the Friday of Week 13.

Details
Instructions for the take home exam are as follows:

1. There will be three questions, all questions are compulsory and all are worth equal marks.
2. Answers must be typed in Arial font 11 point size.
3. Start each question on a different page and leave a 4cm left margin.
4. The total word limit for this exam is 2000 words. Words over this limit WILL NOT BE READ nor taken into account in assessing a mark. The total number of words must be stated. Footnotes, quotes or any other extra material are to be included in the word count BUT footnotes or quotes should not be used in any event.
5. The answers should be in your own words and the use of quotations is inappropriate.
6. Footnotes are not required. Citations and any other material normally placed in footnotes should be placed in the text.
7. You are not permitted to discuss this exam with anybody until after the submission date.
8. The exam will be available for collection from Law School Reception (level 4 'C' block) on the Friday of Week 13 and also on the Blackboard site. For internal students: The paper must be submitted to the Level 4 Law School Reception by 5.00pm on the next Monday. DO NOT submit directly to the lecturer. Internal students must also upload their exam answer to the LWB494 Blackboard site by 5pm on the same day. If there is any discrepancy between the hard copy and the electronic copy of the exam answers - the hard copy is the one which will be marked. For external students: The paper must be uploaded to the LWB494 Blackboard site by 5pm on the due date (it is your responsibility to ensure that you are physically able to do this as no extensions will be given). Externals students do not need to submit a hard copy of the exam answer.
9. External students should obtain copies of the exam from the Blackboard site.
10. After the semester results are released the exam will be available for collection (internal students), or sent out (external students). The exam will clearly show the marks for each question together with feedback.
Relates to objectives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, and 9.
Weight: 70%
Internal or external: Both
Group or individual: Individual
Due date: See Description

Assessment name: External Exercise
Description: Purpose
The primary purpose of this assessment is to test unit content, and this is explicitly assessed. The assessment also advances written communication skills. The external exercise is in lieu of class participation marks for internal students and consists of written answers to the Week 4 tutorial It is worth 10% of the marks for the unit, and must be between 1000 and 1600 words.

Details
The external exercise (worth 10%) must be submitted electronically - by uploading it to the relevant section of the LWB494 Blackboard site. The external exercise is in lieu of class participation marks for internal students.

Externals must submit a written paper of 1000-1600 words, which demonstrates that you have read all of the materials and properly attempted the tutorial problem. Please bear in mind that it is an exercise, not an assignment or research paper and footnotes should not used. You must however give citations of cases to which you refer (in the text). Do not use footnotes. Words in excess of 1600 will NOT be read or taken into account when assessing the mark. The word count must be stated.

The exercise will be returned to you with written feedback.
Relates to objectives: 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.
Weight: 10%
Internal or external: External
Group or individual: Individual
Due date: Week 8

Assessment name: Written Sentencing Submissions
Description: Purpose
See purpose for this assessment and details above in assessment for internal students.

External students will submit a written sentencing submission in lieu of giving an oral presentation which is worth 30% of marks for the unit. Your topic will be available via the Blackboard site three weeks before the due date.

The written sentencing submission is in lieu of the oral presentation for internal students, and is in all other respects the same. There are two written components to this exercise which you must complete:

1. A transcript of the oral submissions you would make to the court. The word count is 1500-2000 words, and must not exceed 2000 words. Words in excess of 2000 will NOT be read or taken into account when assessing the mark. The word count must be stated.
2. A written Outline of Argument which summarises your key submissions and assertions of relevant law, along with full and correct citations of all relevant authorities. The word count is a maximum of 500 words and this Outline must fit on a single A4 page. This outline is essentially an executive summary of your transcript, but in a form that would be suitable for handing up to the sentencing judge/magistrate. You should not need to do any additional research for this outline.

DO NOT use footnotes (include the case citations in the text, after the case name). Include also any references to legislation in the text.
Relates to objectives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.
Weight: 30%
Internal or external: External
Group or individual: Individual
Due date: Week 11

Academic Honesty

QUT is committed to maintaining high academic standards to protect the value of its qualifications. To assist you in assuring the academic integrity of your assessment you are encouraged to make use of the support materials and services available to help you consider and check your assessment items. Important information about the university's approach to academic integrity of assessment is on your unit Blackboard site.

A breach of academic integrity is regarded as Student Misconduct and can lead to the imposition of penalties.

Resource materials

Prescribed legislation:

Penalties and Sentences Act 1992 (Qld) - current reprint in any form.

Also selected sections of the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth), and Juvenile Justice Act 1992 (Qld) as advised in relevant sections of the study guide.

Prescribed texts:

Mackenzie, G. And Stobbs, N. Principles of Sentencing Federation Press, Sydney: 2010


Recommended text:

Bagaric, M, and Edney R, Australian Sentencing: Principles and Practice Cambridge University Press, 2007


References

Chappell, D, and Wilson, P, (eds) Crime and the Criminal Justice System in Australia: 2000 and Beyond, Butterworths, Sydney, 2000

Fox, R and Freiberg, A, Sentencing: State and Federal Law in Victoria, Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1999.

Mackenzie, G, Summary Offences Law and Practice Queensland, Sydney: LBC Information Services, 1995 (looseleaf - regularly updated) - contains annotation of Penalties and Sentences Act 1992 (Qld)

Robertson, J, and Mackenzie, G, Queensland Sentencing Manual LBC Information Services, Sydney, 1998

Von Hirsch, A and Ashworth, A, (eds) Principled Sentencing: Readings on Theory and Policy, 2nd ed, Northeastern University Press, Boston, 1998

Risk assessment statement

There are no out of the ordinary risks associated with this unit.

Disclaimer - Offer of some units is subject to viability, and information in these Unit Outlines is subject to change prior to commencement of semester.

Last modified: 18-May-2012