Crowd source study! Inchoate offences

Indricotherium

Just doing a bit of study and decided to see if I can get a bit of a buzz going here!!

First question!!

Are the penalties for attempts the same as the penalties for completing the crime?

In real life, does judicial discretion come into play and people guilty of attempted crimes get lesser sentences?????

johnnyskeleton

Indricotherium wrote: »

Are the penalties for attempts the same as the penalties for completing the crime?

the penalty for an attempt can be no greater than the principal offence. Mandatory sentences don't seem to apply. So the max for attempted murder is life but can be less than that.

In real life, does judicial discretion come into play and people guilty of attempted crimes get lesser sentences?????

the offence and an attempt should be considered the same for sentencing. However, there will usually be additional mitigating factors or an absence of aggravating factors in an attempt. So, for example, in an attempted burglary there will be no damage caused, violation ofthe home and no question of the injured parties being out of pocket. In an attempted murder the fact that someone survived is usually better than if they had died etc. Sometimes if an attempt failed because a persons conscience got the better of them and/or they alerted the authorities that could be a mitigatig factor