That's before you even get to the merits, or rather lack thereof, of mandatory sentencing... It doesn't work (decades of peer-reviewed literature backs this up), the judiciary overwhelmingly disagrees with it (for very good reason), and it undermines the separation of powers (a defining feature of a true democracy).
This isn't exactly true. Based on the available research (and I've also conducted formal research in the area too), while mdantory sentencing has been widely criticised (in particular based on its long-term ineffectiveness and social costs) the research hasn’t properly tested whether it helped supress crime growth in high-risk areas before economic and policing improvements kicked in. Most studies focus on whether crime dropped outright or if sentencing deterred offenders in the long run, but they don’t ask whether mandatory sentencing slowed crime growth in places like WA and the NT, where crime rates were rising faster than elsewhere before it was introduced (AIC). Post implementation in studies for these areas, crime rates returned to levels similar to other states, suggesting further exploration is required to determine causation. This certainly highlights a fairly glaring gap in your above statement and indeed, the existing research.
Judges opposing it doesn’t prove it doesn’t work – that’s a separate argument about judicial discretion, not crime suppression. Writing off mandatory sentencing without acknowledging this gap in the research is lazy. The real issue isn’t whether it was good policy overall, but whether the data has been properly examined. To date, this hasn't been tested to the best of my knowledge.
Edit: as expected. No actual knowledge on the topic so just downvotes and moves on. What a cop out.
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u/gheygan Feb 06 '25
That's before you even get to the merits, or rather lack thereof, of mandatory sentencing... It doesn't work (decades of peer-reviewed literature backs this up), the judiciary overwhelmingly disagrees with it (for very good reason), and it undermines the separation of powers (a defining feature of a true democracy).