For many repeat offenders, previous convictions have more impact on their penalty than the seriousness of their current crime. Why do we punish reoffense more harshly? Should offenders be punished only for crimes they commit and not for crimes committed and paid for in the past? How does this practice affect the views of offenders and the public?

Julian Roberts is Professor of Criminology at the University of Oxford and has been conducting research in the area of sentencing since 1983. In the 1980s he worked for a Royal Commission on Sentencing and he has been teaching sentencing to students, criminal justice professionals and judges ever since. Roberts' other principal area of research is public attitudes to criminal justice, including sentencing. He is the Editor of the European Journal of Criminology and Associate Editor of the Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice.

• 1: Paying for the Past: The Recidivist Premium


• 2: Reductivist Sentencing Perspectives and the role of previous convictions


• 3: Retributive Approaches to Previous Convictions


• 4: The Enhanced Culpability Model


• 5: Role of Previous Convictions: Representative Sentencing Frameworks


• 6: The view from the dock: Perceptions of sentenced officers


• 7: Sentenced Individuals Reactions to the Recidivist Sentencing Premium


• 8: The Individuals' Reactions to the Recidivist Sentencing Premium


• 9: The Intuitive Sentencer: Public Attitudes to Prior Offending


• 10: Explaining Public Attitudes: The Intuitive Sentencer and the Intuitive Psychologist


• Appendices