Mere Christianity – C. S. Lewis (1952)
I think that this is often the main problem with the jurisdiction ethos regarding sentencing people in this country. Sentences that have already been served for previous crimes are not admissible to be considered if a new crime is committed, therefore those making the ruling, have no knowledge that similar offences have already been committed. This can lead to multiple infringements of the law but because each one is taken in isolation the pattern of the re-offending is never considered.
Judges and those members of the general public called upon to serve on a jury are only ever presented with the facts of a crime in isolation from previous offences, which gives them no insight into the history of that person. They will sentence those that have made a mistake or one-off misdemeanours in the same way as they would a serial offender. As far as I am concerned there should be an accumulation system to past convictions, whereby each subsequent crime adds to the file of the previous offences.
There are far too many reports of people that have a history of crime simply serving their time and doing the same thing over and over again once they are free.