Exploring and Explaining the Use and Proliferation of Whole Life Orders in England and Wales

Whole life orders (WLOs) represent the power of the state to inflict harm at its most extreme, with such sentences being found to be in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights. However, very little research has endeavoured to understand the use of WLOs. This article presents the findings from analysis of data that were generated via freedom of information requests and archival research. We identify an initial gradual increase in the use of the sentence, followed by a sharp rise in the number of people serving WLOs after 2003. We seek to explain these changes with reference to criminological literature on preventive justice, penal populism, and the risk society and make comparisons between the use of WLOs and the indeterminate sentence of Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP). We conclude that work is needed to better understand and constrain further growth of this sentence.