The Relationship Between Case (Offense and Offender) Characteristics of Burglary and Sentence

Abstract

Up to this point, the analysis has provided two scores for each principal offender: one score quantifying the degree of aggravation associated with the offense, the other score representing the degree of exculpation by way of mitigation. The purpose of this chapter is to explain how these two scores were combined for each principal offender to derive a single score quantifying culpability and then to examine the relationship between these scores and sentence. Before this relationship is examined, some of the case scores representing culpability must be adjusted to allow for interaction between certain mitigating offender characteristics and to disallow credit for mitigation in particularly grave cases. Each of these four matters is considered in turn.