Community Context and Sentencing Decisions

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.