Project seeks to legally define ‘heinous,’ ‘cruel,’ ‘depraved’ or ‘evil’
Which is worse: Bombing a building or forcing a child to watch a crime? Attacking a stranger for fun or causing a car accident while under the influence of drugs or alcohol? Murder with intent or murder by mistake?
They're complicated questions that, in the heat of a criminal trial, can get tangled up in emotion, abstract impressions and arguments about how bad a crime really was.
The Depravity Scale can be a great tool to alleviate some of the arbitrary and emotionnally-driven court rulings. A uniform, catergorized and well-defined set of criteria regarding what events make a crime "depraved" allow for increased fairness and objectivity in our judicial system. This is especially true considering that judges are allowed to increase criminal sentences based upon the "heinousness" or "depravity" of a given crime. Ultimately, every judge has his or her own schemas, definitions, opinions, emotions and life experiences that determine how they feel about cases. It seems that without a defined set of criteria of these terms the length of a criminal's prison sentence can differ depending on the geographic location of the crime. A less arbitrary and a relatively more fair and objective judicial system seems like a good idea to me.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Anonymous - The Depravity Scale seems like the perfect meeting place for the subjective viewpoint of the juror and objective lens needed in the courtroom. It goes right to the heart of the matter, presenting factual descriptions of criminal attiudes and victimology, leaving bias at the door. All too often, jurors are left to deliberate without proper instruction and can only decided from their guts - now Dr. Michael Welner is promoting blind justice, brining the law back to the courtroom. I am truly excited about this research and hope it is incoporated into trial work soon!
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