Discretion in a Criminal Justice System
Discretionary decision-making is influenced by internal as well as external factors. The example of an internal factor can refer to the way the crime was committed, mitigating circumstances if any, and the severity of the crime itself. Similar crimes may be classified differently when discretionary decision-making is used, and offenders can get different punishments for similar crimes. Internal factors are most often considered in judicial sentencing discretion. A good example of judicial discretion is the amount of sentence reduction that is given to criminals. Thus, it has been found that judges, in general, meter out shorter periods of sentence reduction for those crimes where mitigating circumstances were established as longer periods for crimes where no such circumstances are observed (Gelsthorpe & Padfield, 2003). Though the period of sentence reduction should generally depend on the behavior of the inmate, in those states where judicial discretion is less restricted, decisions are often guided by other factors, among which are mitigating circumstances and the severity of the crime.
External factors often include outside characteristics of the defendant that cannot be changed. Such properties as race, gender, and community group to which the defendant belongs, have a significant impact on judiciary decision-making. Thus, it has been found that Afro-Americans usually get harsher punishments for drug-trafficking crimes while whiter individuals get off with lesser punishments (Gelsthorpe & Padfield, 2003). Thus, race is one of the major outside factors subconsciously considered by prosecutors and judges alike. Another example of discretionary decisions built on the consideration of race factor is the punishment for rape. It has been found that longer punishments are metered out for Afro-Americans raping white women for similar crimes involving Afro-American men and Afro-American women (Gelsthorpe & Padfield, 2003).
Reference
Gelsthorpe, L. & Padfield, N. (Eds.). (2003). Exercising discretion: Decision-making in the criminal justice system and beyond [Abstract]. Web.