Overview
The determination of factors which aggravate or mitigate punishment is an under-researched yet vital subject in the field of sentencing. Sentencing factors affect the severity of sentences imposed. Indeed, the determination of sentence may be regarded as a judicial weighing of all relevant mitigating and aggravating circumstances. The important word here is “relevant.” Before a court takes a particular factor – X – into account, it needs to be satisfied that this factor is relevant to the sentencing decision. Factors unrelated to sentencing – such as the offender’s income, gender, race/ethnicity, or social class – should be ignored. As will be seen, some sentencing guidelines explicitly direct courts to ignore irrelevant factors such as race and employment status.
After some introductory comments this chapter notes the sources of guidance for sentencers with respect to mitigation and aggravation. This is followed by a discussion of the problems associated with this guidance....
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Roberts, J.V. (2014). Mitigation and Aggravation at Sentencing. In: Bruinsma, G., Weisburd, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5690-2_491
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