Statutory Aggravating Factors are circumstances, as defined by a state's criminal code, that can increase the severity of a criminal sentence. These factors are used to determine whether a defendant should receive a harsher sentence than what is typically mandated by law. Common Statutory Aggravating Factors include prior criminal record, use of a deadly weapon, committing a crime against a vulnerable victim, committing a crime in a particularly cruel or heinous manner, and committing a crime with the intent to gain a financial benefit. Other types of Statutory Aggravating Factors are known as "victim-based" factors, which are used to determine the severity of a sentence based on the characteristics of the victim involved in a criminal offense. Victim-based factors can include the age of the victim, the physical or mental health of the victim, and the status of the victim (e.g., elderly person, child, or disabled individual).
STATUTORY AGGRAVATING FACTORS
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FAQ
Before sentencing, prosecutors can submit statements to judges, in which they outline factors in aggravation, hoping to persuade the judge to impose a stiff sentence.
States vary in the specific circumstances they define as aggravating factors, but generally include murders committed during the commission of another crime, murders committed for monetary gain, murders of police officers, multiple murders, or other murders considered to be particularly aggravated.
What are the 5 mitigating circumstances? Five mitigating circumstances include age, mental state, history of abuse, level of involvement in the crime and lack of criminal record of the defendant. Each of these categories of circumstances can contain many specific factors that result in different levels of mitigation.
The judge may consider a variety of aggravating or mitigating factors. These include whether the defendant has committed the same crime before, whether the defendant has expressed regret for the crime, and the nature of the crime itself.
Aggravating factors might include, for example, wilfulness (i.e. doing something intentionally), lack of remorse, effect of the misconduct on the employer, loss of trust, previous warnings etc. Mitigating factors could include remorse, confession, absence of damage or loss, provocation and a clean disciplinary record.