These investigations examine convicted defendants' lifestyles and backgrounds, and the effect punishment will have on themselves, their families and society as a whole. An investigation will sometimes include a psychological evaluation, if needed.
Probation officers try to draw as clear a picture of the crime as possible.
In doing so, they search out the mitigating and aggravating factors and the extenuating circumstances surrounding the crime. Mitigating factors Mitigating factors are circumstances that reduce a defendant's level of blame for a crime. He discovers that the person is the neighbor's daughter, who had wandered into the yard in search of her cat. The assault is a crime. The homeowner's belief that his family was in danger from an intruder, however, may constitute a mitigating factor.