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The length of federal sentences for ethnic and gender groups convicted of federal crimes is analyzed. It is concluded that African-Americans and Hispanics tend to get longer sentences than whites, especially for certain crimes. Men tend to receive longer sentences than women.

This paper evaluates the impact of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines on interjudge sentencing disparity, which is defined as the differences in average nominal prison sentence lengths for comparable caseloads assigned to different judges. This disparity is measured as the dispersion of a random effect in a zero-inflated negative binomial model. The results show that the expected difference between two typical judges in the average sentence length was about 17 percent (or 4.9 months) in 1986-87 prior to the Guidelines and fell to about 11 percent (or 3.9 months) in 1988-93 during the early years of the Guidelines. We have not sought to measure the effect of parole in the pre-Guidelines period, other sources of disparity such as prosecutorial discretion, or the proportionality of punishment under the Guidelines as compared with the pre-Guidelines era.

One of the most basic failings of the current sentencing system in Canada is that there is no method for anyone (not a judge, accused, lawyer, member of the public [...], Sentencing statistics are not routinely published in Canada. In this article, we summarize the principal findings from a data-base recently created by Statistics Canada. The sentences derive from provincial courts in nine jurisdictions across Canada over the period 1993-1994. These are, accordingly, the most systematic sentencing data collected in decades. The sentencing data-base contains information on 551,682 individuals and over one million sentences. The findings reported here are restricted to single charge cases, in which one charge is associated with a case. A fine was the most frequently imposed sanction;fines were imposed in over half the cases. A term of imprisonment was imposed in one-quarter of the cases. Sentences of imprisonment were frequently accompanied by a period of probation to be served at the conclusion of the term of custody. Sentencing patterns at the trial court level bore little relationship to the maximum penalty structure, thereby underlining the importance of a comprehensive revision of the maximum penalties currently found in the Criminal Code.

Changes in dispositions for young persons convicted of criminal offences have been discussed largely in terms of the use of custody (e.g., Corrado and Markwart 1988; Doob 1991; Leschied and [...], Les auteurs ont recueilli des donnees sur les jeunes contrevenants de moins de 16 ans dans les dossiers du Tribunal de la jeunesse de Toronto pour deux periodes (1984-86 et 1989-90) qui ont suivi l'entrie en vigueur de la Loi sur les jeunes contrevenants (LJC) pour les comparer a des donnees de la meme source sur les deux dernieres annees de la Loi sur les jeunes delinquants (LJD). Certaines caracteristiques des affaires portees devant le tribunal et decidies par le tribunal ont varie au cours des trois periodes cihaut mentionnees. Notamment, le serieux (et le nombre) des accusations, sur lesquelles les sanctions sont appuyees, s'est aggrave au cours de la periode la plus recente. Les conclusions que des sanctions plus severes ont ete imposees au cours des dernieres periodes que durant les periodes anterieures peut vouloir dire que les affaires portees devant le tribunal changent, que les tribunaux changent leurs criteres pour determiner les peines, ou les deux a la fois. Alors que la Loi sur les jeunes delinquants etait en vigueur, il y avait peu ou pas de relation entre le serieux des accusations et la severite des peines. Depuis l'entree en vigueur de la Loi sur les jeunes contrevenants, le lien entre le serieux des accusations et la severiti des peines est plus fort; ce qui laisse supposer, au moins a Toronto, que les juges du Tribunal de la jeunesse plus qu'autrefois porte leur attention sur le delit dans le processus de decider des sanctions. Data from Toronto Youth Courts dealing with young offenders under age 16 were collected from court dockets during two time periods (1984-6 and 1989-90) after the implementation o "the Young Offenders Act (YOA) and were compared to data collected from the same source during the last two years of the Juvenile Delinquents Act (JDA). Some of the characteristics of cases coming to court and being sentenced by the court differed across the three time periods. In particular, the nature (and number) of the charges forming the basis of the sentence became, more serious in the most recent time period. Thus, the finding that more severe dispositions were handed down in the latter time periods as compared to the earlier ones may reflect changes in the nature of cases, changes in sentencing criteria, or both. Under the JDA, there was little if any relationship between the seriousness of the most serious charge and the severity of the sentence. Under the YOA, the relationship between the seriousness of the charge and the severity of the sentence was stronger suggesting that, at least in Toronto, youth court judges under the YOA had become more "offence oriented" in their decisions about dispositions.

Chris Huhne and his ex-wife Vicky Pryce were released from prison after serving eight weeks of their eight-month sentences for perverting the course of justice. How much of their sentences [...]