NCJ Number
229208
Journal
International Criminal Justice Review Volume: 19 Issue: 4 Dated: December 2009 Pages: 433-455
Date Published
December 2009
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This study examines previous findings relative to sentencing disparity among terrorists and non-terrorists in U.S. Federal Courts prior to the imposition of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.
Abstract
Findings revealed three important findings: first, terrorists received substantially longer sentences than similarly situated non-terrorists, and governmental response was significantly more severe and uncompromising than for traditional Federal offenders convicted of similar Federal crimes; terrorist sentences during the study era, 1980 to 1987, were, on average about four and one-half times longer than those for non-terrorists matched by year and primary offense code. Second, it was found that political motive, whether the polity "labeled" the offender as a terrorist or not, was the best predictor of sentence length, despite controls for numerous demographic variables, offense severity, and disposition. Finally, it was found that the ability to predict the sentences of terrorists appeared to be substantially better than the ability to predict the sentences of non-terrorists. Explained variance was approximately four times higher among a terrorist sample than among a matched non-terrorist sample using the same predictor variables. Data were extracted from two main sources: the American Terrorism Study (ATS) and from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. Tables, notes, and references