California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Duarte, B247879 (Cal. App. 2015):
But it appears the trial court was relying only on the "callousness" aspect of rule 4.421(a)(1). The trial court noted the various factors contained in this one rule and then said: "I think the issue in this case is callousness. [] There are child molestation cases and there are child molestation cases. Those of us who have been in the system for a while have seen a variety of child molestation cases. This case involved a lot more than the touching that we commonly see in many child molestation cases." The court also said it believed "the callousness displayed by these types of sexual activities on young boys the ages of these boys renders these offenses particularly egregious." A determination that a particular offense is "distinctively worse" than the average justifies an aggravated term. (See People v. Black (2007) 41 Cal.4th 799, 817 ["An aggravating circumstance is a fact that makes the offense 'distinctively worse than the ordinary.' "].)
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