Based On Factors Of The Defendant’s History

Sentencing is the stage that an offender must go through after receiving a conviction or accepting a plea for a crime they were being accused of. During this process, a judge will weigh all of the factors of the case to determine how tough or lenient the sentence will be. A judge has the ability to maximize or minimize a sentence based off certain factors as well as the history of the defendant. A sentence doesn’t always mean jail time. A sentence can be a fine, probation, community service, rehabilitation, etc…For the sake of this writing assignment, I will discuss two type of offenders, offender A and offender B. I will discuss the factors that a judge should pay attention to within the different cases as well as whether they should receive an indeterminate or determinate sentence. I will then end with the discussion on whether or not a state should adopt a computerized sentencing system.

When determining a sentence for Offender A, who is being convicted of 2nd degree aggravated assault, a judge may determine how useful he is to the community rather than behind bars. The judge should consider his current education credentials as well as his future educational advancement opportunity. Offender A is at Clayton State University on an academic scholarship, with a GPA of 3.70. He is within his last year at Clayton State and has been accepted into the Master’s Business Administration program at an ivy league school, Harvard University. The judge should also factor in that not only is scholarship important to offender A, but service as well. Offender A gives back to his community regularly and is also considered a tax paying citizen being that he has held a part time job as a banker.

A judge should take into account, this only happened because he was trying to protect his frat brother from their rival fraternity. It must also be noted that on the flip side Offender, A does have a prior conviction for underage drinking in which he received a DUI for when he was 18 years old. Offender A is now 20 years old. In terms of the seriousness of the offense the text points out that, “examining the prior relationship between the defendant and the victim, the courtroom work group may perceive that the underlying crime is a squabble among friends and therefore less serious than the official charge indicates.” In order for this to have happened, there had to have been an interaction between the two frats at some point. Despite this, Offender A is not a menace to society, so all of those factors should be taken into consideration.

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Offender B will be viewed from a different perspective than A. He too is being charged with 2nd degree aggravated assault at the age of 21. Factors that the judge should consider is that offender B does not have a high school diploma and has stated that he didn’t continue with receiving one because of a language barrier. Due to this, he is unemployed and has had a hard time obtaining a full time job. In terms of unemployment, I wouldn’t recommend a judge to use this as a factor. Offender B is a Hipic male, and the book points out, “For African-American or Hipic young males, unemployment was related to harsher sentencing.”  If a judge decides to use this, it could be possible that the sentence that is imposed is one based off of stereotypical bounds, instead of a sentence that could actually allow the defendant to become a better person.

The judge should also consider that the defendant was only trying to live up to his cultural norms when the crime was committed. The book also points out that “the street code in such economically depressed areas leads to a subculture with the norms that are conspicuously opposed to those of mainstream society insofar as they endorse violence as an appropriate response to disrespect.” Offender B only responded to the disrespect in the way that he was taught how to which was violence. For offender A, I deem an indeterminate sentencing option most appropriate. Although offender A was convicted of underage drinking and a DUI in the past, it was a crime that dealt with him being young and dumb in college at the age of 18. Offender A is now 20 years old and has a promising future ahead of him.

Despite this, his victim suffered a plethora amount of abuse from him. The victim was left with broken ribs, five stitches on his face, and a three-day stay in the hospital. All of that can’t go unpunished because offender A could have used a better method to protect his frat brother from their rival. An indeterminate sentence will give offender A enough time to realize what he has done, and how doing these type of things can land you in a place that you don’t want to be. Under this sentence the defendant should be asked to complete some form of wellness rehabilitation in which the focus should be on anger management.

For offender B, I also believe an indeterminate sentencing option would be best. Offender B and offender A more than likely had different childhoods. Education might have been something that offender A’s family placed importance on while offender B’s parents didn’t. Offender B more than likely grew up around gang activity and that’s how he became affiliated. Offender B has shown that he wants to work, but due to the lack of education he is unable to obtain a job that will keep him on fulltime. His cultural norms persuaded him into thinking pistol whipping was the only option there was to protect his girlfriend. Although offender B’s victim did not sustain really bad injuries, his conduct can not go unpunished. An indeterminate sentence would allow offender A to receive rehabilitation.

Rehabilitation, as termed in the text, is “the idea that criminal behavior is the result of social or psychological disorders, and that the treatment of such disorder should be the primary goal of corrections” Offender B more than likely suffers from some form of a social disorder. An indeterminate sentence will provide enough time for rehabilitation to take place and for the offender to utilize these programs to become a law abiding citizen. An example of this for this offender would be receiving his GED while incarcerated. Many of the issues that he faced are primarily because he lacked the education or job training needed to be a productive citizen within society. No, I don’t believe states should adopt a computerized sentencing system because these type systems don’t tell the whole story of the offender.

This system primarily focuses on the legal factors and not all of the mitigating factors that might have led up to the occurrence of the crime. With this system offender A just appears to be an all around threat to society, when in reality he’s a well educated young man who has a bright future ahead of him. He probably suffers from some slight anger issues, but that wont be factored in based off of the computerized system. Offender B appears to be less violent than offender A being that his victim wasn’t severely beaten and he has no prior convictions but in reality they both need to receive the same treatment. Based off of the computerized system offender A is more likely to receive a determinate sentence and offender B an indeterminate. Because of all of the things that could possibly go wrong, computerized sentencing should not be considered.

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