Sentencing and Corrections Research (From Sentencing & Corrections Workshop: Prepared Papers, 1996)

• NCJ Number: 163790
• Author(s): M Tonry
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 14 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Justice (NIJ); US Dept of Justice NIJ Pub; Office of Justice Programs (OJP)
• Sale Source: NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Type: Conference Material
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: See NCJ 163785-164789 for additional papers.

Annotation

Suggestions are offered concerning research priorities related to racial disparities in the criminal justice system.

Abstract

The sentencing reform movement has been underway for nearly 25 years. Using substantive rather than political criteria, it is clear that presumptive sentencing guidelines have been the most successful of major sentencing innovations tried. Such guidelines have been effectively used to reduce sentencing disparities in general and sentencing disparities related to race and gender in particular. Due to the lack of recent research on structured sentencing, more evaluation research is recommended to focus on building intermediate sanctions into sentencing guidelines, sentencing guidelines in the context of community corrections legislation, the effectiveness of presumptive sentencing guidelines and voluntary sentencing guidelines, prosecutorial discretion under sentencing guideline systems, and mandatory sentences. The key to establishing a research program on racial disparities in the criminal justice is the starting premise. If the starting point is the conservative premise that racial disparities per se are not objectionable, the focus of research should be to identify the scale and sources of invidious biases that produce unjustifiable racial disparities. If the starting point is that racial disparities per se are objectionable, policy-relevant research should focus on sentencing case studies, offending, and victimization.