This volume explores an important, yet under-researched, area of sentencing law and practice: the use of mitigating and aggravating factors.

1. Exploring aggravation and mitigation at sentencing Julian Roberts; 2. Re-evaluating the justifications for aggravation and mitigation at sentencing Andrew Ashworth; 3. The search for principles of mitigation: integrating cultural demands Allan Manson; 4. Personal mitigation at sentencing and assumptions about offending and desistance Joanna Shapland; 5. Intoxication as a sentencing factor: mitigating or aggravating? Nicola Padfield; 6. Beyond the partial excuse: Australasian approaches to provocation as a sentencing factor Arie Freiberg and Felicity Stewart; 7. Equality before the law: racial and social background factors as sources of mitigation at sentencing Kate Warner; 8. Personal mitigation: an empirical analysis in England and Wales Jessica Jacobson and Mike Hough; 9. Exploring public attitudes to sentencing factors in England and Wales Julian Roberts and Mike Hough; 10. The pernicious impact of perceived public opinion on sentencing: findings from an empirical study of the public's approach to personal mitigation Austin Lovegrove; 11. Addressing problematic sentencing factors in the development of guidelines Warren Young and Andrea King; 12. Proof of aggravating and mitigating facts at sentencing Kevin Reitz; 13. Mitigation in federal sentencing in the United States Will Berry; 14. The discretionary effect of mitigating and aggravating factors: a South African case study Stephan Terblanche.