Social Enquiry and Sentencing in the Sheriff Courts

This ESRC funded research project was a collaboration led by Simon Halliday, Neil Hutton and Cyrus Tata at the University of Strathclyde. The study used ethnographic methods to study the production of social enquiry (or pre-sentence) reports and their use by sentencers. A summary report of the project’s findings can be found in project documents, along with some related recent presentations. The fieldwork was undertaken principally by Dr Nicola Burns (now at the University of Glasgow) and was completed in 2006.

The study used innovative ethnographic methods to study the production of social enquiry (or pre-sentence) reports and their use by sentencers. A summary report of the project’s findings can be found in project documents, along with some related recent powerpoint presentations.

A podcast of a seminar presentation analysing some of the early findings from the social work ethnography can be accessed at:  http://www.sieswe.org/node/130

Project Documents SERs summary report