Trends in Sentencing Law
Since the 1840s, many jurisdictions, including the federal, have adopted a practice of having a probation officer prepare a presentence investigation report to inform the court as to the defendant's characteristics, including his criminal record, if any. In the 1970s the length of incarceration had increased in response to the rising of crime rates in the United States. The conditions of the sentence had been satisfied when the legislature decided to reduce discretion in the sentencing process and the determination. The increase of incarceration in the last decade was most common in the life sentencing that have increased by 83% between 1992 and 2003 due to short the three strikes laws. Short term sentencing, mandatory minimums, and guideline based sentencing began to remove the human element from sentencing. They also asked the judge to consider the severity of the crime to determine the length of an offenders sentence.
Read more about this topic: Criminal Sentencing In The United States
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