It has long been accepted that
social inquiry reports may make recommendations as to the sentence an offender should receive.
In a
social inquiry report ordered by Sotik principal magistrate Bernard Omwansa, it was established that the boy was indeed a school dropout and he wanted to sell one of the animals so as to offset Sh77, 000 fee arrears.
A
social inquiry report and even her victim's family had asked she be spared jail.
But she decided to fine him after reading a
social inquiry report.
Neil MacGregor appeared from custody at Glasgow Sheriff Court but a
social inquiry report ordered at his last appearance was not available.
'The
social inquiry report reveals you have behaved in a similar manner on two previous occasions.'
In order to ensure full consideration of these issues in as many cases as possible, the Act requires a PSR to be prepared in a number of situations in which, under earlier legislation, consideration of a
Social Inquiry Report (SIR) would have been optional.
This week, advocate Lorraine Glancy, defending, told Sheriff Vincent Smith that the writer of the
social inquiry report on Irvine did not consider him suitable for the Change Programme, which is aimed at tackling domestic violence.
Sheriff Jack McGowan noted that in a
social inquiry report the girl's head teacher maintained that she was a pupil of Killen's at school as well as at his home.
It was a fairly minor assault.'' Magistrates adjourned sentence until May 31 for a
social inquiry report and warned that all options - including custody - were being left open.
After revealing his central finding that the numbers of custodial sentences given to black defendants do appear to be attributable to the race factor in some courts, Dr Hood looks at sentence lengths, non-custodial sentences, and then attempts to account for sentencing differences by addressing the circumstances of apprehension of the offender; whether he was remanded in custody or on bail; whether a
social inquiry report was presented and if so what was its recommendation.
"However, the author of the
social inquiry report prepared on Mr Bull refers to a community payback order as an option."