Approaches to the Development of Detailed Sentencing Statistics and Numerical Guidelines

Abstract

This chapter comprises a review of attempts to introduce greater precision and structure into the sentencing judgment through quantitative guidance showing the relationship between various combinations of case factors and the associated types and quanta of sentence; this review includes both descriptively and prescriptively oriented approaches. Specifically, the evaluation covers the guideline judgments of the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) in England (see Ashworth, 1984); Wilkins et al.’s (1978) empirically based descriptive guidelines; Hogarth’s (1986a, 1986b) sentencing data base; Doob’s sentencing data base (Doob, 1986; Doob & Park, 1987); the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission’s (1984) policy-based prescriptive guidelines; and the United States Sentencing Commission’s (1987) presumptive guidelines. The following evaluations are not general but are confined within the framework of the present study; they are specifically concerned with the potential contribution of each of the approaches, where appropriate, to the development of detailed sentencing statistics describing current practice and to greater uniformity of approach in sentencing through the development of sentencing policy as a basis for guidance.