Bugmy Revisited: Profound childhood deprivation and the mitigation of moral culpability in sentencing decisions

Discussion Paper Notwithstanding the fact that disadvantage and deprivation have been considered as factors in sentencing courts for many years, in 2013 the High Court introduced the relationship between profound childhood deprivation and the mitigation of moral culpability in sentencing decisions, in the judgement William David Bugmy v The Queen (Bugmy). In the period since the judgement there has not, in Victoria, been any assessment of the principles determined by the High Court in Bugmy. Consequently, a research study was initiated: the study is referred to as the Bugmy Project. In this discussion paper, we revisit Bugmy to further explore the notion of profound childhood deprivation and how it impacts the mitigation of moral culpability in sentencing decisions.