A sentencing judge who accepts that an offender has a mental health condition is not thereby required to find diminished moral culpability or to moderate general deterrence; the assessment of whether the condition had a causative role in the offending and its effect on sentence remains a matter for the sentencing judge's discretion on the evidence. The Bugmy principles (childhood deprivation) and De La Rosa principles (mental health conditions) provide separate bases for reducing moral culpability, but neither operates automatically. An attempt to commit a crime is not automatically of lesser seriousness than a completed offence; the gravity of each offence must be assessed on its own facts and circumstances.
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