Is the Offense Serious Axis Free of Extralegal Influence?: Assessing the Predictors of a ‘Legally Relevant’ Guideline Criterion

Kautt, Paula

doi:10.1007/s12103-008-9048-9

Cited by 5 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…These findings are particularly interesting given that offense severity and criminal history are instrumental in the development of sentencing guidelines throughout the country (Kautt, 2009). In order to make sentencing more rational and uniform, defendants with equivalent offenses and analogous criminal backgrounds are supposed to be sentenced in a consistent manner according to prescribed guidelines.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender and Sentencing Outcomes in South Carolina

Koons‐Witt

Sevigny

Burrow

et al. 2012

Criminal Justice Policy Review

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Despite sentencing reforms over the last few decades, many states failed to introduce guidelines, including South Carolina. The present article uses data collected from the now disbanded South Carolina Sentencing Commission (1982Commission ( to 2003 in order to assess the influence of gender, age, race, and type of crime. We found that females were consistently sentenced more leniently than were similarly situated males. Interactions between gender and the other variables, however, failed to gain significance with the exception of gender and offense type for the sentence length decision. Interestingly, we found a significant interaction between gender and offense severity level for both sentencing outcomes and criminal history for the incarceration decision. We discuss the implications of these findings in the event that South Carolina would have adopted sentencing guidelines.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender and Sentencing Outcomes in South Carolina

Koons‐Witt

Sevigny

Burrow

et al. 2012

Criminal Justice Policy Review

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“…Practical constraints focus on organizational issues affecting the criminal justice system such as prison space. According to Kautt (2009a) and Blumstein et al (1983), the majority of sentencing guidelines involve two of these focal concerns: offense severity (i.e. blameworthiness) and offender dangerousness (i.e.…”

Section: Offender Dangerousness Offense Severity and Sentencingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Status, emotional displays, and the relationally-based evaluation of criminals and their behavior

Dilks

McGrimmon

Thye

2015

Social Science Research

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This research uses status characteristics theory to expand our knowledge of the effects of status variables (e.g., race, education) and emotional displays on the antecedents of sentencingevaluations of offender dangerousness and offense seriousness. We present a theoretical formulation that combines three areas of status characteristics research -reward expectations, individual evaluative settings and valued personal characteristics. The result is a quantitative measure that aggregates relative differences in demographic and emotional characteristics between offenders and their victims. The significance of this expectation advantage measure (e) in predicting evaluations of offender dangerousness and offense severity is tested using data from a vignette study. We find empirical support that expectation advantage significantly predicts these sentencing antecedents but not sentencing outcomes directly. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for future status and criminological research.

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“…Evidence shows that extralegal factors, such as defendant race, affect offense seriousness calculations (Kautt, 2009). Sentencing theory suggests that this influence is a product of individual discretion and attempts to predict risk (Albonetti, 1991;Steffensmeier et al, 1998).…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Employing this perspective, Kautt (2009) argues that FPOs use 'perceptual shorthand' to evaluate cases and reach a final offense seriousness score. However, Focal Concerns does not pinpoint how excessive workload, confusing procedures or differences in organizational characteristics might affect these calculations.…”

Section: Kautt Heuristic Influences Over Offense Seriousness Calculationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To our knowledge, only one study explores guideline axis predictors. Using multivariate single and multilevel analyses on federal data, Kautt (2009) finds that defendant race significantly predicts the final offense seriousness score net of guideline prescribed factors and that the race effect varies significantly by both probation office and district. In explanation, she postulates that, as the number of factors comprising offense seriousness increases, so too do the avenues for discretion based disparity and argues that Federal Probation Officer (FPO) unfettered discretion produces extralegal disparity in a manner similar to that of judges under indeterminate sentencing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Heuristic influences over offense seriousness calculations

Kautt

2009

Punishment & Society

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Discretionary decisions are integral to the Criminal Justice System, regardless of branch or stage. Often, structured interventions are introduced in an effort to control or guide discretion use. In the USA, grid-based sentencing guidelines are commonly used to channel sentencing discretion. However, despite their presence, research consistently shows that, net of legally relevant factors, significant racial disparity persists in sentencing outcomes under guideline structures. Although judicial and prosecutorial-based explanations for this abound, how the structural components of these guidelines (such as the offense seriousness axis) and the discretionary decisions related to them might contribute to this disparity have seldom been explored. Using federal sentencing data, a data-partitioning strategy and multilevel multivariate analyses, this study examines whether there are significant differences in the federal offense seriousness calculations for black and white defendants. The results suggest that Federal Probation Officers (FPO), in an effort to meet their diverse responsibilities in the time allotted, use heuristics when making offense seriousness determinations. This furnishes a previously neglected explanation for the persisting differential effects and highlights the utility of heuristic mechanisms in explaining both discretionary decisions and apparent disparate treatment by race or ethnicity in the criminal justice system.

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Is the Offense Serious Axis Free of Extralegal Influence?: Assessing the Predictors of a ‘Legally Relevant’ Guideline Criterion

Cited by 5 publications

References 41 publications

Gender and Sentencing Outcomes in South Carolina

Gender and Sentencing Outcomes in South Carolina

Status, emotional displays, and the relationally-based evaluation of criminals and their behavior

Heuristic influences over offense seriousness calculations

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