[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by octothorp

In the other case, it had more of an impact with the judge opting not to sentence a youth as an adult, because she found that he was “an immature, dependent 16 year old caught up in the dysfunctional dynamics of his community, dynamics that are relevant to my understanding of his context, background, and choices.” That's a sentencing decision that a judge could just as easily make about a white kid from, say, an abusive, dysfunctional home.

The difference is that the judge might not have been able to appreciate the environment the defendant is from without the cultural assessment. If the cultural assessment makes up for that gap in knowledge and allows judges to make well-informed decisions, I fail to see what the problem is.

Besides, from what I can tell, there's nothing that prevents a white defendant from requesting a cultural assessment as part of their defense strategy, either. It's up to the judge whether they feel that the assessment is useful enough to pursue, and then whether it contains anything that affects their judgement.

Okay, that makes sense.