Within the Discussion Board area, write 400–600 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas:
- Should mandatory sentencing options exist for most crimes, or should judges be allowed to use their discretion? Why? Explain. In discussing your position, please make sure to discuss the impact on the victims, on the defendant, and on society.
- APA 7 citing and references
Answer preview
Explaining sentencing outcomes means understanding judicial discretion and how they practice the law. Judges have the power to sentence someone. However, their voices are limited due to the existence of some sentencing structures in different states. Some people argue that judges are restricted to punishing criminals accordingly, while others say that mandatory sentencing is required to constrain judicial discretion. Many people in the United States prison are incarcerated due to decisions made by lawmakers to increase the use of prison sentences (Nir & Liu, 2021). To my understanding, I think the mandatory sentencing option should exist for most crimes as it stops unjust sentencing practices by judges whereby you find that, sometimes judge’s sentence people using biasness due to race, color, or nationality. It will help reduce biasness among judges, and every criminal will receive conviction equally.
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