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Sentencing Act 2002

Sentences, orders, and related matters - Imprisonment

85: Court to consider totality of offending

You could also call this:

"The court makes sure your total punishment is fair for all the wrong things you did."

Illustration for Sentencing Act 2002

When you are in court and you have done something wrong more than once, the court thinks about how serious each wrong thing you did was. The court wants to make sure the punishment for each wrong thing fits how serious it was. The court also thinks about how long you might have to stay in prison in total.

If the court decides you have to stay in prison for each wrong thing you did, they make sure the total time is fair for all the wrong things you did together. They do not want the total time to be too long compared to how serious all the wrong things were. The court tries to find a balance so the punishment is fair.

If the court is only giving you punishments that happen at the same time, they give the most serious wrong thing the strongest punishment. This punishment should fit all the wrong things you did, as long as it is not more than the maximum allowed. Then, the court gives punishments for the less serious wrong things that fit each of those wrong things.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM136448.

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Crime and justice > Criminal lawCrime and justice > Courts and legal help
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84: Guidance on use of cumulative and concurrent sentences of imprisonment, or

"How the court decides if you serve prison sentences one after another or at the same time"

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86: Imposition of minimum period of imprisonment in relation to determinate sentence of imprisonment, or

"Minimum prison time before parole can be considered"

Part 2Sentences, orders, and related matters
Imprisonment

85Court to consider totality of offending

  1. Subject to this section, if a court is considering imposing sentences of imprisonment for 2 or more offences, the individual sentences must reflect the seriousness of each offence.

  2. If cumulative sentences of imprisonment are imposed, whether individually or in combination with concurrent sentences, they must not result in a total period of imprisonment wholly out of proportion to the gravity of the overall offending.

  3. If, because of the need to ensure that the total term of cumulative sentences is not disproportionately long, the imposition of cumulative sentences would result in a series of short sentences that individually fail to reflect the seriousness of each offence, then longer concurrent sentences, or a combination of concurrent and cumulative sentences, must be preferred.

  4. If only concurrent sentences are to be imposed,—

  5. the most serious offence must, subject to any maximum penalty provided for that offence, receive the penalty that is appropriate for the totality of the offending; and
    1. each of the lesser offences must receive the penalty appropriate to that offence.