A Statistical Analysis of Sentencing in Federal Courts: Defendants Convicted after Trial, 1967-1968

Abstract

THE research reported on here is designed to illuminate the effects on sentence of presumably legitimate sentencing factors such as the crime committed, the defendant's age, and his prior record. Some illegitimate factors are suspected of having an effect on the sentencing decision, factors such as the type of counsel and the defendant's race; these too are explored. It is also widely believed that sentencing is intimately intertwined with and may be affected by the needs arising out of the conviction process. This creates the strong possibility that correctionally irrelevant factors may nevertheless determine some part of the sentence. A sentence arrived at as an "administrative accommodation" is unlikely to be a sentence derived from exclusive focus on deterrence or the "rehabilitative ideal." The specific question addressed here is whether the type of trial conviction--bench trial versus jury trial-is a sentencing factor, and if so, how important it is. Whether waiver of a jury in favor of a bench trial should result in a lower sentence for otherwise similarly situated defendants is precisely the type of question that might receive different responses from a prosecutor than from a correctional official.