PART 1 In the course of stealing and destroying evidence, Monika committed several other crimes—mugging a police officer, setting fire to a crime scene, and breaking into the police station. Her actions have directly threatened public safety and have made it difficult to prosecute other criminals. Someone will have to pay to repair the damage caused by the fire and break-in.
In a short essay (three to four paragraphs), answer these questions:
1. If you were the judge in charge of sentencing, what criminal sanctions would you use to punish Monika, deter future crime, and ensure public safety?
2. What corrections programs would you use to support rehabilitation and compensate victims?
You may want to use a table like this to organize your thoughts.
Priority Rank Criminal Sanctions or Programs to Support This Goal
Retribution
Deterrence
Public Safety
Rehabilitation
PART 2
Question 1. Mabel Livingston is clearly guilty of hiring a private detective to cover up her son’s crimes. This led to property damage and left her son free to make trouble. However, Ms. Livingston is an elderly woman. She has a long history of supporting charities and the community. She seems to care about people and is not likely to hurt them intentionally.
Prosecutors could charge Ms. Livingston with crimes such as obstruction of justice or conspiracy to destroy evidence. In most states, a typical sentence for those crimes would involve up to a $1,000 fine and up to six months in jail.
What are the pros and cons of sending Ms. Livingston to jail?
QUESTION 2. Refer to the previous question.
What are the pros and cons of requiring her to pay a $1,000 fine?
QUESTION 3. Refer to the previous two questions.
Imagine that an 18-year-old high school student working a minimum-wage job committed a similar crime. If that 18-year-old and Ms. Livingstone both got a $1,000 fine and six months in jail, would that be fair? Or would identical sentences have a more serious impact on one of them?
PART 3. Imagine you are the probation officer asked to develop presentence investigation reports (PSIs) for Ms. Livingston, Louis Livingston, and Monika (the private detective).
Choose one of these characters. Use the information you recall from the story to outline the PSI. Focus on identifying key information, not on writing complete sentences.
Fill in each section in the table. Depending on the character you choose, you may not have information for every section. In that case, just write “unknown.”
Defendant’s Name
Criminal Acts
Criminal History
School and Work History
Physical and Mental Health
Mitigating Factors
Your Sentencing Recommendation and the Reason for That Recommendation
