NCJ Number
82880
Date Published
1981
Length
334 pages
Annotation
This study was designed to provide the Federal Sentencing Commission with information to be used in formulating Federal sentencing guidelines.
Abstract
This analysis provides the first step in the development of sentencing guidelines. Findings are presented pertaining to the sentencing of offenders in Federal district courts. The analysis concentrates on 11 offenses: bank embezzlement, postal embezzlement, forgery, mail fraud, bank robbery, drug offenses, income tax violations, homicide, bribery, false claims and statements, and other Federal offenses. This aspect of the research should serve as a model for expanded study, presumably under the auspices of a sentencing commission. Most of the analysis was conducted using data from eight district courts which were representative of the Federal circuits. Data were drawn from presentence investigation reports and from automated files of the U.S. courts. The sentencing commission would have to perform at least two primary tasks to convert these statistics into guidelines. First, the weights derived through analysis would have to be adjusted to reflect the purpose of sentencing. Second, the formulas would have to be converted into a form that is useful for sentencing deliberations. Reference notes are included. Factor analyses and regression results are appended.