Skipping straight to the punishment: criminal infringement notices and factors that influence police discretion

ABSTRACT The Australian criminal justice system has witnessed a shift towards out-of-court justice in the form of police-issued penalty notices. The exercise of police discretion in such instances has largely escaped critique, in part due to insufficient executive and judicial oversight of this early stage of decision-making. This article sheds light on factors that influence police decision-making regarding whether to issue a penalty notice for suspected criminal offending. It critiques a unique dataset of interviews conducted with Western Australia police officers to inquire into how police structure their discretion around considerations that include: alleged offender characteristics and attitudes, the purposes of punishment and concerns about resourcing, efficiency and productivity. The article advances scholarly understandings of how the legal and policy structure governing police-issued penalty notices encourages police to differentiate between suitable and unsuitable candidates for fines.