Sentencing Policy and Disparity: Guidelines and the Influence of Legal and Democratic Subcultures

• NCJ Number: 223938
• Journal: Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 36 Issue: 4 Dated: August 2008 Pages: 362-371
• Author(s): Matthew S. Crow; Marc Gertz
• Date Published: August 2008
• Length: 10 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Based on an analysis of 661,481 felony sentencing events in Florida from 1994 to 2003, this study examined the effects of the State’s sentencing policy on sentencing outcomes and the determinants of sentencing decisions.

Abstract

The study found that sentencing outcomes varied significantly across counties. The legal factors of offenders’ prior record and offense severity had significant effects on sentencing outcome. For example, each prior incarceration increased the odds of incarceration by 60 percent, and sentence length by over 38 percent. The extralegal variables of gender, race, and ethnicity also influenced sentencing outcome. Males, Blacks, and Hispanics were significantly more likely to be incarcerated. Offenders sentenced under Florida’s Criminal Punishment Code (CPC) were 65 percent more likely to be incarcerated and receive sentences 34 months longer than those sentenced under the previous 1994 guidelines. The major change introduced by the CPC involved the severity of recommended sentences and the level of judicial sentencing discretion permitted. Although the point calculation determines the recommended sentences, judges have the discretion to sentence offenders whose points fall below that threshold to either community supervision or prison, as well as discretion to sentence any offender up to the statutory maximum penalty. Thus, upward sentencing discretion is virtually unbounded. Pursuant to the study’s expectations, the findings support the view that sentencing policy provides the parameters within which legal and extralegal factors are synthesized to shape sentencing outcomes. The study’s two dependent variables were the incarceration decision and prison sentence length. Independent variables pertained to individual-level factors (offense severity and prior criminal history) and county-level variables (county partisan composition, racial and ethnic composition, crime rate, and unemployment). 5 tables, 10 notes, and 85 references