7.3 Presentencing Report and Problems of Presentencing Report Framing

Meaning: the presentence report (PSR) — the investigation of the convicted person's background prepared to inform the sentence: age and family; education and employment; physical and mental health; prior record; the offence's circumstances and impact (victim's loss); attitude, remorse, restitution efforts; community ties and release plans — the therapeutic approach's evidentiary base (Lamichhane's spirit made procedural, Unit 3). Framing problems (the exam list): 1. No professional probation service — Nepal lacks the dedicated probation-officer cadre the 2074 Act's full implementation presupposes; courts rely on police reports, jail records and defence submissions. 2. Data gaps and unverifiability — background claims without documentation; the village-and- migration reality (families scattered in India and the Gulf) defeating verification. 3. Bias risks — class, literacy and caste gradients in how "good character" is read. 4. Delay — report-gathering postponing the sentence (the docket's cost). 5. Confidentiality and use — the report's handling, disclosure to parties, and the appeal record's treatment without settled practice. 6. The resource asymmetry — indigent convicts get thin reports (legal aid's limits — the Art 20(10) free-legal-aid floor applying at sentencing too). Reform direction: the Sentencing Act 2074's scheme of sentencing hearings and reports, a professional probation service, and standardised report formats.