ABSTRACT
In Australia, people with mental health problems ‘comprise a disproportionate number of people who are arrested, who come before the courts and who are imprisoned’. As Australia has a federal criminal law system, with nine different jurisdictions, the precise effect that an individual's mental health problems will have on their journey through the criminal justice process will depend on their location. This chapter focuses on the sentencing of convicted offenders and describes Victorian law and practice. The sentencing process occurs after an offender pleads guilty to an offence or is convicted at trial. While Australia's federal criminal law system precludes discussion of an ‘Australian’ approach to the way mental health problems are taken into account in the sentencing process, in recent years there has been a convergence of the law in this area, with all jurisdictions adopting the approach taken by the Victorian Court of Appeal in the landmark case of R v Verdins.
