Question

Do you believe that a judge’s sentencing decisions should be focused on the past, present, or future?

Answer 1

Though a judge decides a sentence based on past and present, I feel future also must be taken in to account. Past records of the convict should provide a clue about his likely future behaviour- if there are chances to improve or not. For example- a rapist completes a sentence and commits a rape again after being released, now when he again gets a sentence, post completing the sentence, there are high chances that he will commit such a crime again, and hence a judge must also take likely future behaviour of convict into consideration.