Community Context and Sentencing Decisions in 39 Counties in the United States, 1998


Book Description

This study aimed to understand the extent to which punishment is influenced by the larger social context in which it occurs by examining both the main and conditioning influence of community context on individual sentences. The primary research questions for this study were (1) Does community context affect sentencing outcomes for criminal defendants net of the influence of defendant and case characteristics? and (2) Does community context condition the influences of defendant age, race, and sex on sentencing outcomes? Data from the 1998 State Court Processing Statistics (SCPS) were merged with a unique county-level dataset that provided information on the characteristics of the counties in which defendants were adjudicated. County-level data included unemployment, crime rates, sex ratio, age structure, religious group affiliation, and political orientation.




Community Context and Sentencing Decisions


Book Description

Criminal sentencing is a quite visible and very important stage of the criminal justice process. Due partly to its visibility and to its potentially devastating impact on individuals and communities, there is more interest now than ever before in how we sentence and punish criminal offenders. The development and implementation of various legislative initiatives (e.g., sentencing guidelines/grids and mandatory minimums) are evidence of the public's and policymaker's distrust of criminal justice authorities' ability to appropriately and fairly sentence criminal offenders. This book presents a comprehensive analysis of the sentencing of convicted felony defendants across large, urban counties in the United States. Three different sentencing outcomes are examined and particular focus is placed on the importance of contextual influences on sentencing outcomes for individual offenders--along with defendant and case/legal characteristics. This analysis helps shed light on the factors that influence sentencing decisions and broadens our understanding of sentencing to include defendant, case/offense, and community characteristics.




Bureau of Justice Statistics


Book Description













Handbook on the Consequences of Sentencing and Punishment Decisions


Book Description

Handbook on the Consequences of Sentencing and Punishment Decisions, the third volume in the Routledge ASC Division on Corrections & Sentencing Series, includes contemporary essays on the consequences of punishment during an era of mass incarceration. The Handbook Series offers state-of-the-art volumes on seminal and topical issues that span the fields of sentencing and corrections. In that spirit, the editors gathered contributions that summarize what is known in each topical area and also identify emerging theoretical, empirical, and policy work. The book is grounded in the current knowledge about the specific topics, but also includes new, synthesizing material that reflects the knowledge of the leading minds in the field. Following an editors’ introduction, the volume is divided into four sections. First, two contributions situate and contextualize the volume by providing insight into the growth of mass punishment over the past three decades and an overview of the broad consequences of punishment decisions. The overviews are then followed by a section exploring the broader societal impacts of punishment on housing, employment, family relationships, and health and well-being. The third section centers on special populations and examines the unique effects of punishment for juveniles, immigrants, and individuals convicted of sexual or drug-related offenses. The fourth section focuses on institutional implications with contributions on jails, community corrections, and institutional corrections.