A sentencing judge must evaluate an offender's psychological or psychiatric condition as a subjective circumstance in its own right, and is not entitled to confine consideration to the question of whether the condition was causally linked to the offence. Similarly, a pattern of chronic drug abuse attributable to circumstances beyond the offender's control (such as youth and dysfunctional upbringing) must be taken into account as a relevant subjective circumstance bearing on culpability, even where specific claims of intoxication at the time of the offence are rejected.
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