Sentencing Matters

by Tonry, Michael

• ISBN13: 9780195094985
• ISBN10: 0195094980
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1996-01-18
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Sentencing policies and reform have become critical issues across the nation as the public has become increasingly concerned about crime, prompting changes such as the three strikes and you re out legislation. Every state since 1980 has enacted laws mandating minimum prison sentences based on the premises that harsher penalties will reduce crime rates and that judges cannot otherwise be trusted to impose them. Modern laws often tell judges what sentence to impose rather than set boundaries within which sentencing choices are to be made. Yet the effectiveness of these reforms has not been shown. As the national incarceration rate surges, there needs to be new discussion of the nature, purpose, and effects of current and contemplated sentencing policies. In Sentencing Matters , Michael Tonry, an internationally recognized authority in the field, offers a comprehensive overview of research, policy developments and practical experience concerning sentencing and sanctions. He examines the effects of increased penalties and whether America has become a safer place as a result. Tonry contends that in order for sentencing to be fair and effective, comprehensive and defensible policies must be in place and mechanisms must exist to implement those policies. He also looks at mandatory penalties, community sanctions, and sentencing changes in other countries, and proposes sentencing policies for the twenty-first century. Sentencing has been going through reform for a quarter century, yet the political debates on the subject have changed remarkably little. By offering a comprehensive survey of new developments in research and policy, Sentencing Matters is certain to spark fresh debate on this divisive issue. It will be of great interest to lawyers, criminologists, judges, policy makers, and others concerned with the problem of crime and what to do about it.

Author Biography

About the author: Michael Tonry is Sonosky Professor of Law and Public Policy at the University of Minnesota, and editor of the journals Crime and Justice--A Review of Research and Overcrowded Times. He is the author or editor of many previous works, including Between Prison and Probation (with Norval Morris, Oxford 1990), Modern Policing (1992), Building a Safer Society--Strategic Approaches to Crime Prevention (with David P. Farrington, 1995), and Malign Neglect: Race, Crime, and Punishment in America (Oxford, 1995).

Table of Contents

Sentencing Matters	3	(22)
Twenty-Five Years of Sentencing Ferment	6	(7)
The Injustice of Just Deserts	13	(12)
Reforming Sentencing	25	(47)
Experience with Commissions	32	(32)
Issues Facing Commissions	64	(5)
The Future of the Sentencing Commission	69	(3)
The Federal Sentencing Guidelines	72	(28)
Early Experience with Federal Guidelines	73	(7)
Evaluations of the Guidelines	80	(3)
Why the Commission Failed	83	(6)
Salvaging the Federal Guidelines	89	(11)
Intermediate Sanctions	100	(34)
General Impediments to Effective Intermediate Sanctions	104	(4)
Experience with Intermediate Sanctions	108	(19)
Is There a Future for I, `ermediate Sanctions?	127	(7)
Mandatory Penalties	134	(31)
Deterrent Effects	136	(6)
Mandatory Penalties before 1970	142	(4)
Mandatory Penalties in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s	146	(13)
Mandatory Penalties as Instruments and Symbols	159	(6)
Judges and Sentencing Policy	165	(9)
Eliciting Judicial Participation and Support	167	(2)
Training	169	(3)
Implications	172	(2)
Sentencing Reform in Comparative Perspective	174	(16)
Discretion and Disparity	176	(6)
Learning Across Jurisdictional Boundaries	182	(2)
Proportionality with a Human Face	184	(2)
Desert and Disparity	186	(4)
``What Is to Be Done?''	190	(7)
References	197	(20)
Index	217