NCJ Number
198026
Journal
Criminology Volume: 40 Issue: 4 Dated: November 2002 Pages: 897-932
Date Published
November 2002
Length
36 pages
Annotation
This study examined downward departures from sentencing guidelines (less harsh sentences than proposed by the guidelines) for serious violent offenders, using quantitative and qualitative data from Pennsylvania.
Abstract
The first phase of the analysis focused on data from archives maintained by the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing, which contain detailed information on type and length of sentence, prior record, offense type and severity, mode of conviction, as well as other variables such as age, race, and gender of the defendant. The study also went beyond the quantitative data on sentencing outcomes to explore qualitative data based on semistructured, open-ended interviews with judges. These interviews focused on the case circumstances and decision processes associated with a sample of cases that involved serious violent offenders from 1999 in which the sentence was below that recommended by the guidelines. As predictors of guideline departures, the study used a combination of legally prescribed, case-processing, offender-related, and county-context factors that have been significant explanatory or control variables in prior research. The study found that offense severity and prior record had negative direct effects on downward departures from the sentencing guidelines, but a positive interaction effect on them. Offenders convicted of aggravated assault, those who pled guilty, young Black women, and offenders sentenced in large urban courts were more likely to receive downward departures; whereas, those convicted by trial, young Hispanic males, and offenders sentenced in small rural courts were less likely to receive downward departures from the guidelines. The authors argue that downward departures from the guidelines involve local "corrections" to guideline recommendations when there is a mismatch between guidelines and local court actors' definitions of key focal concerns of sentencing for serious violent offenders. Future research should examine the recidivism of offenders who receive downward departures from sentencing guidelines, so as to test the consequences of such departures for community safety. Research that connects analyses of sentencing outcomes to analyses of subsequent offender behavior will constitute one of the next major advances in the understanding of courts and their sentencing practices. 2 tables and 59 references