The consequences of a person’s prior crimes remain after the debt to society is paid and the sentence is discharged. While the practice of using prior convictions to enhance the severity of sentence imposed is universal, prior record enhancements (PREs) play a particularly important role in US sentencing, and especially in guidelines jurisdictions. In grid-based guidelines, criminal history constitutes one of the two dimensions of the grid. The enhancements are hard to justify. Retributive theories generally reject the use of robust, cumulative record-based enhancements. Research into recidivism suggests that the preventive benefits of PREs have been overstated. The public support the consideration of prior convictions at sentencing, but there is convincing evidence that people are less punitive in their views than are many US guideline schemes. PREs exacerbate racial disparities in prison admissions and populations, result in significant additional prison costs, undermine offense-based proportionality, and disrupt prison resource prioritization.

中文翻译：

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判刑时的先前记录增强：未解决的理由和令人不安的后果

在偿还社会债务并解除判决之后，一个人先前犯罪的后果仍然存在。虽然普遍采用事前定罪来增强判刑的严重性，但事前记录增强（PRE）在美国量刑中，特别是在指南管辖区中，起着特别重要的作用。在基于网格的准则中，犯罪历史构成了网格的两个维度之一。增强功能很难证明。分配理论通常拒绝使用健壮的，基于记录的累积增强功能。对累犯的研究表明，PRES的预防作用被夸大了。公众支持在量刑时考虑先前的定罪，但是有令人信服的证据表明，与许多美国准则计划相比，人们对他们的看法不那么惩罚。