Alcohol and drug fuelled violence

On 5 March 2015 the Attorney General asked us to consider a number of proposals from the Thomas Kelly Foundation aimed at deterring alcohol and drug fuelled violence. The Attorney General also asked us to undertake a general examination of possible sentencing measures to achieve deterrence and behaviour change in relation to alcohol and drug fuelled violence.

Report

We transmitted our Report: Alcohol and drug fuelled violence (PDF, 371.8 KB) to the Attorney General on 26 August 2015. It was released in February 2016.

Other documents

The following documents were part of the consultation process for our Report:

• Submissions (responding to the call for submissions)​​
  
• Call for submissions (PDF, 42.2 KB) (published in March 2015)

Terms of reference

We received the following terms of reference on 5 March 2015:

The Sentencing Council is to prepare a report on alcohol and drug fuelled violence that addresses the following:

1. whether a mandatory aggravating factor should be introduced to s 21A of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 that applies where the offence involved violence because the offender was taking, inhaling or being affected by a narcotic drug, alcohol or any other intoxicating substance
2. whether the concept of "conditional liberty" in s 21A(2)(j) of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 should be defined
3. whether the concept of "vulnerability" in s 21A(2)(1) of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 should be expanded to include the victim being unable or unlikely to defend themselves because of youth, age, sex, disability, physical constraints, inability to escape, lack of knowledge of attack, abused trust or emotional impediment as well as because of the victim's occupational vulnerability (such as a taxi driver, a bus driver, a public transport worker, a bank teller, a service station attendant or a cashier) or because of the victim being homeless
4. any other sentencing measures to deter and change behaviour in relation to alcohol and drug fuelled violence, including measures taken by other jurisdictions, the success of such measures and their possible suitability for NSW.