ABSTRACT
Historically, the American crim inal justice system was an adversarial combat between the state and the accused defend ant in a crim inal trial. The accused denied commit ting the alleged offense, and the trial jury was charged with determin ing the fact of inno cence or guilt. If the accused was found guilty, the presid ing judge, using all avail able inform a tion and guided by the pre-sentence invest ig a tion report ordered previ ously from the court’s invest ig at ors, would then impose sentence on the guilty in the interest of justice and to achieve some recog niz able correc tional object ive. Such object ives could include punish ment, rehab il it a tion, rein teg ra tion, retri bu tion, repar a tion, or deterrence.
