Sentencing Matters

by Tonry, Michael

• ISBN13: 9780195122930
• ISBN10: 0195122933
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-01-08
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Michael Tonry, an internationally recognized authority on criminology, offers in these pages a comprehensive overview of current research, policy developments, and practical experiences concerning sentencing and sanctions. He examines the effects of increased penalties and considers whether they have made America a safer place. 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 over twenty-five years, yet political debate on the subject has changed remarkably little. By offering a complete survey of new developments in both research and policy, Sentencing Matters is certain to spark fresh dialogue on this divisive issue.

Author Biography

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 several well-regarded books on crime and punishment.

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