Judicial Response to Crime and the Criminal - A Utilitarian Perspective

• NCJ Number: 101101
• Journal: Journal of Quantitative Criminology Volume: 1 Issue: 4 Dated: (1985) Pages: 369-386
• Author(s): T Orsagh
• Date Published: 1985
• Length: 18 pages
• Grant Number(s): 79-NI-AX-0047
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Theoretical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This paper examines the hypothesis that the criminal court's sentencing decision is consistent with utilitarian principles and that the judiciary uses sentence length to maximize society's well-being.

Abstract

A theoretical utilitarian model is developed whose principal arguments are offender and offense attributes, resource costs, the availability of alternative sanctions, and the general crime rate. The model is evaluated using cross-sectional data from Georgia for individuals sentenced to prison in 1978 for a Uniform Crime Report Index offense. The results show that the utilitarian principle provides few specific behavioral rules for courts. The interplay of benefits and costs at the margin determines sentence outcome, and that interplay is environment-specific. The analysis also indicated that sentence length varied inversely with the general offense rate, with the likelihood of imprisonment, and with the length of postprison probation. Sentences varied with the individual's official record, but not with age or race. Tables and approximately 50 references. (Author abstract modified)