The Support of Society for the Criminal Justice System and the Criminal - Research Paper Example

Download file to see previous pages The practice of preparing PSI has started in 1920. “Its original purpose was to provide information to the court on the defendant’s personal history and criminal conduct in order to promote individualized sentencing” (The History of the Pre-sentence Investigation Report, p.1). This report normally contains the background information of the criminal such as his crime history, crime tendency, family history, juvenile adjudications, description of the crime, the defendant's work history, marital status, financial status, length of residence in the community, educational background, medical history, substance abuse history, etc. Based on these information probation officers decide about the corrective measures needed for the criminal. For example, a criminal who has the history of series of criminal activities may normally get parole whereas first time criminals may normally get probation. Probation is the most liberal corrective mechanism. A judge can decide about the probation of the criminal after reviewing the nature of the crime and the character of the criminal. Fresh criminals may get probation in most of the cases. “A violation of probation gives rise to a hearing on whether or not probation should be revoked” (Kaman). If a criminal violates the conditions of probation, the judge or the probation officer has the right to withdraw the probation. In such cases, the criminal may get sentencing.
On the other hand, parole is granted at the end of a prison term or in between the prison term. It is a corrective measure of conditional liberty. ...Download file to see next pagesRead More