Judge's Sentencing Cases: A Case Study

288 Words2 Pages
There are eight general factors listed below that influence a judge’s decision to sentence the accused in a case. These secondary legal factors are not supposed to influence a judge’s decision, but they do because they are only human (Bohm & Haley, 2012). Under the black robe of authority, judges are human and contain all the prejudices just like regular citizens. Some of the characteristics that have been found to affect the judge 's sentencing decisions are: (1) the socioeconomic background of the judges. (2) Their academic qualifications and the law school that they attended. (3) Their previous practices and experiences in and out of the courtroom. (4) The number of offenders that they defended earlier in their careers. (5) The judges that