NCJ Number
157130
Date Published
1995
Length
25 pages
Annotation
The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 requires the U.S. Sentencing Commission to review relevant sentencing guidelines in order to ensure that victim-related adjustments for fraud offenses against elderly victims are adequate.
Abstract
This report provides an overview of the legislative history leading to the statutory directive, discusses the operation of relevant guidelines and policy statements, examines case law, and analyzes the available sentencing data. The Commission, in this report, concludes that lack of consistently reported information on victim age prevents a comprehensive analysis of the adequacy of sentencing guidelines in fraud crimes perpetrated against older victims. However, there is some evidence that the courts are using existing sentence enhancement mechanisms, particularly the upward adjustment for offenses involving vulnerable victims, and findings that the magnitude of the enhancement, which is approximately 25 percent, is adequate. Based on court sentencing decisions, the threshold at which fraud victims are perceived to be vulnerable because of age appears to be substantially higher than 55 years. 35 notes and 2 appendixes