NCJ Number
163781
Journal
Justice Quarterly Volume: 13 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1996) Pages: 81-106
Date Published
1996
Length
16 pages
Annotation
Sentencing data from Pennsylvania for 1985-87 and 1989- 91 were analyzed to determine the extent to which sentences that depart from the State's sentencing guidelines recommendations involve extralegal differences.
Abstract
The sentences involved both felonies and misdemeanors. The analysis used a combination of legally prescribed, case processing, offender-related, and county context factors as predictors of departures from guidelines. Guideline departures included dispositional departures, durational departures below guidelines, and durational departures above guidelines. Results revealed that legally prescribed factors such as offense type and severity and criminal history were the main predictors of decisions to depart from the guidelines, but that departures from guidelines are also the locus of significant extralegal differences involving gender, race, and mode of conviction (guilty plea versus trial). Findings indicated the need for more research to examine the link between local political contexts, court organizational arrangements, workgroup case-processing strategies, sentencing reform strategies, and sources of disparity in sentencing outcomes. Tables, footnotes, appended table, 3 case citations, and 48 references (Author abstract modified)