What factors do judges consider when sentencing offenders? Why is it difficult to determine how make their decisions.
What will be an ideal response?
Studies of judges’ sentencing decisions reveal that these decisions are based on the seriousness of
the offense and the offender’s prior criminal record, offender and victim characteristics, the type of
disposition (plea vs. trial), the defendant’s pretrial status (released or in custody prior to trial), and the
type of attorney representing the defendant (private attorney vs. public defender). In sentencing
offenders, judges seek to implement sentences that fit individual offenders and struggle to impose just
punishments, judges consider the harm done by the crime, the blameworthiness and culpability of the
offender, and the offender’s potential for reform and rehabilitation. The ambiguity and uncertainty
inherent in the sentencing process, coupled with the fact that judges exercise considerable discretion in
deciding what the sentence will be, means that we cannot conclusively determine how a judge arrived at
a particular sentence in a particular case. We know that judges’ sentencing decisions rest to a
considerable degree on their assessments of harm and blameworthiness and their predictions of
dangerousness, but we don’t know with certainty how these assessments and predictions are made.
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Information provided in the text indicates that high school seniors' self-reported illicit drug use has currently:
a. started to decrease by a modest amount in the past few years b. started to increase by a modest amount in the past few years c. remained very stable since the 1980s d. been the highest rate of illicit drug use since the early 1980s
In conspiracy law, Wharton's rule:
a. permits a conspiracy conviction even if only one actor can be proved guilty. b. requires an act in furtherance of the conspiracy. c. requires at least one person more than it takes to commit the consummated crime. d. requires acquittal when all other conspirators are acquitted.
In 1940, the founder and secretary-treasurer of the Chicago Waste Handlers Union was murdered. ________, a man who had never been a member of the union or a waste handler, showed up at a union meeting, paid his dues, and on the same night became the new secretary-treasurer
a. "Dopey" Fein b. "Red" Dorfman c. Jackie Presser d. "Tony Pro" Provenzano
Coolidge v. New Hampshire first enunciated the automobile exception to the search warrant requirement
a. True b. False Indicate whether the statement is true or false