Fifteen Years of Guidelines Sentencing: An Assessment of How Well the Federal Criminal Justice System is Achieving the Goals of Sentencing Reform

• NCJ Number: 208044
• Author(s): Paul J. Hofer; Charles Loeffler; Kevin Blackwell; Patricia Valentino
• Date Published: November 2004
• Length: 246 pages
• Corporate Author: US Sentencing Cmssn
• Sale Source: US Sentencing Cmssn
• Publication Format: Document (Online)
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Downloaded December 15, 2004.

Annotation

This report provides an evaluation of Federal sentencing reform since the passage of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984.

Abstract

In an effort to infuse the Federal sentencing process with a sense of transparency to the public, consistency, and fairness, the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 (SRA) was passed by Congress. The SRA established the United States Sentencing Commission (Commission) with the goal of developing guidelines for Federal sentencing. This report evaluates three specific aspects of Federal sentencing reform: (1) the sentencing guidelines’ impact on the transparency, certainty, and severity of punishment; (2) the guidelines’ impact on inter-judge and regional disparity; and (3) research on racial, ethnic, and gender disparities in sentencing. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the Federal SRA, including a discussion of its history, its purpose and goals, how it was implemented, and the components of the reformed sentencing system. Chapter 2 presents findings on the sentencing guidelines’ impact on sentencing certainty and severity. The evaluation indicates that the sentencing guidelines have substantially increased the rationality and transparency of Federal sentencing, as well as its certainty and severity. Chapter 3 presents assessment results concerning the sentencing guidelines’ impact on pre-sentencing, inter-judge, and regional disparity. While inter-judge disparity has been decreased, regional disparity has only been partially impacted, resulting in decreased regional disparity for some offenses, but increased disparity for other offenses, such as drug trafficking offenses. Chapter 4 offers findings on racial, ethnic, and gender disparities occurring today in Federal sentencing. The findings indicate that racial or ethnic discrimination in sentencing has been substantially reduced, whereas gender disparities in Federal sentencing linger on within the system despite the reforms. Chapter 5 offers a summary of the findings and a discussion of the main conclusions. Appendixes, bibliography