Criminal Justice: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) by Julian V. Roberts

Author:Julian V. Roberts [Roberts, Julian V.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9780198716495
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Published: 2015-08-27T04:00:00+00:00

Sentencing disparity

How much difference does the judge personally make to the sentence imposed? Ideally, given the same case, all judges would impose the same sentence, the way that a student’s essay should receive the same grade—whichever faculty member happened to be marking the work. Unfortunately, as offenders (and students) will attest, judges (and professors) differ in their perceptions of the same criminal case (or essay). Variation in sentencing has been demonstrated repeatedly by researchers over the past century, using a variety of research methodologies. Sometimes they study actual sentencing trends—and find that sentences vary on the court location.

Sentencing disparity has been demonstrated in many ways in different countries. Researchers have given groups of judges the same case to read and then asked them to sentence the offender. If the personality of the judge is unimportant, the sentences should vary little. Yet the studies that have adopted this experimental approach have found considerable variation. One study asked 200 judges to pass sentence on the same case of armed robbery. The least severe sentence chosen was a suspended prison sentence, while the most severe was thirteen years in prison! The range in response to another case—of theft this time—ran from a fine to three years in prison. These findings have been replicated in other countries and on different occasions; they underline the need for some form of guidelines which would promote a uniform approach to sentencing across courts and judges.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.