NCJ Number
241529
Date Published
October 2009
Length
57 pages
Annotation
This report presents a history of the Federal sentencing guidelines for Federal child pornography offenses, which were initially promulgated in 1987 by the U.S. Sentencing Commission and substantively revised nine times in the following 22 years.
Abstract
Each of the guideline changes for 1988, 1990, 1991 (parts I and II), 1996, 2000, 2003, 2004, and 2009 are reviewed. The U.S. Congress has had an ongoing interest in deterring and punishing child pornography offenses, prompting the Sentencing Commission to respond to multiple public laws that have created new child pornography offenses, increased criminal penalties, both directly and uniquely through amendments to the child pornography sentencing guidelines; and it has required the Sentencing Commission to consider offender and offense characteristics for the child pornography guidelines. The most recent sentencing guideline revision is pending before Congress and, absent congressional action, will become effective on November 1, 2009. Sentencing courts have also commented on the perceived severity of the child pornography sentencing guidelines by their increased use of below-guidelines variance and downward rates of departure from the sentencing guidelines. Consistent with the Sentencing Commission's duties to review and revise the sentencing guidelines, along with the U.S. Supreme Court's direction, the Sentencing Commission has established a review of the child pornography sentencing guidelines as a priority for the amendment cycle ending May 1, 2010. The current report is the Sentencing Commission's first step in work on this priority. 238 notes