NCJ Number
93553
Date Published
1983
Length
212 pages
Annotation
Six essays portray sentencing systems in the Scandinavian countries, West Germany, and the United States. They examine options in constructing a sentencing system and sentencing reform in the United States, sentencing the mentally ill, and implementing sentencing reform through guidelines.
Abstract
After focusing on Scandinavian approaches to sentencing determinacy and disparity, the first essay outlines Scandinavian sentencing systems and explains why disparity is not regarded as a serious problem; case examples illustrate appellate sentencing review. The essay on sentencing in West Germany explains the types of sentences authorized by German law, and the distribution of sentencing authority, procedure, and principles. Essays on sentencing in the United States attempt to link future debate on criminal sentencing to recent sentencing reform and discuss the evolution of determinate sentencing legislation. The concluding essays address important issues in any scheme of criminal sentences. One essay focuses on sentencing the mentally ill offender, developing principles for when to mitigate and when to aggravate punishment, and the proper limits of both. The final essay considers the problem of eliciting compliance with major changes in substantive sentencing policies, using presumptive sentencing guidelines for illustrative purposes. Chapter references and an index are supplied. For individual documents, see NCJ 93554-57.