NCJ Number
174560
Date Published
1997
Length
47 pages
Annotation
In order to investigate the possibility of unwarranted sentencing disparity under Maryland's voluntary sentencing guidelines, the population of persons (n=80,608) convicted of a single offense in a Maryland Circuit Court between January 1987 and September 1996 were analyzed.
Abstract
Data were obtained from courtroom worksheets that are routinely completed by court clerks at each circuit court. The database contains attributes of the offense and offender, as well as case-processing characteristics. Variables specific to the Maryland sentencing guidelines include the offense score and the offender score. These variables were of particular importance to the study since prior research indicates that offense seriousness and prior record are the most influential factors in determining sentence outcomes. Sentence outcome consisted of the decision as to whether to incarcerate and the decision as to the length of incarceration. Logistic regression models were estimated to examine the effect of legal and extra-legal factors on the incarceration decision using the SAS System. The study results are consistent with prior research. Offense seriousness and prior record were the most powerful predictors of sentence outcome. Race was found to influence the incarceration decision net of legal factors in the total sample, but not sentence length. Notably, the effect of race on sentence length varied by crime category. Black and Hispanic defendants convicted of drug offenses were more likely to receive longer sentences than white defendants. Furthermore, race influenced the incarceration decision regardless of whether the sentence was consistent or inconsistent with the sentencing guidelines. The magnitude of the effect of race on the incarceration decision was particularly strong among individuals convicted of drug offenses and sentenced in compliance with the sentencing guidelines. 16 tables, 4 figures, and 22 references