Quote:
Originally Posted by DSTCHAOS
Definitely. There's a ton of research on sentencing guidelines and the pros and cons of them.
hijack/
So on one hand there's a need to consider extralegal factors, for example, society doesn't want tons of primary caregivers removed from the home. On the other hand there's a tendency for these extralegal factors to be used as a bias, such as women who serve as drug mules being used as the "fall guy" for general deterrence.
Has a caveman PM'd you about your signature yet?
/hijack
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Haha, no cavemen have PMd me, but if any took offense I would of course change my signature ASAP.
I agree, it's an interesting question, and there's research going on in all different fields about sentencing. To me, another part of it comes down to the old general/common law debate (law as written vs law as unwritten, and judges' ability to "freelance," so to speak). If you give a judge more freedom in sentencing, they can be unfair in sentencing, but if you have these guidelines, they can keep judges from devising sentences that are, well, more "just."
I'm only a 1L, so I don't know if there's some middle ground, but it's a worthy debate.
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