The effect of prior record in sentencing research: An examination of the assumption that any measure is adequate

Spohn, Cassia; Welch, Susan

doi:10.1080/07418828700089331

Cited by 18 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Prior incarcerations might simply be a better measure of offender risk or a more salient consideration for court actors in the sentencing process. Such a conclusion is consistent with prior work that finds prior record measures incorporating previous incarcerations are better predictors than those based on prior arrests or convictions (Spohn and Welch, 1987). The current findings reproduce this result in the context of the Dutch criminal justice system.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Sentencing Homicide Offenders in the Netherlands: Offender, Victim, and Situational Influences in Criminal Punishment*

2010

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Empirical investigations of criminal sentencing represent a vast research enterprise in criminology. However, this research has been restricted almost exclusively to U.S. contexts, and often it suffers from key data limitations. As such, an examination of more detailed international sentencing data provides an important opportunity to assess the generalizability of contemporary research and theorizing on criminal punishment in the United States. The current study investigates little‐researched questions about the influence of prosecutorial sentencing recommendations, victim/offender relationships, and extralegal disparities in sentencing by analyzing unique data on the punishment of homicide offenders in the Netherlands. The results indicate that offender, victim, and situational offense characteristics all exert important independent effects at sentencing and that prosecutorial recommendations exert powerful influences over judicial sentences. The article concludes with a discussion of future directions for comparative sentencing research across international contexts.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Sentencing Homicide Offenders in the Netherlands: Offender, Victim, and Situational Influences in Criminal Punishment*

2010

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“…After reanalyzing the data from several studies, both Hagan (1974) and Kleck (1981) found smaller race effects when offense severity and prior record were held constant (but see Spohn, 2000; Ulmer, 2012; Zatz, 2000). Beyond variation in extralegal effects, there is near unanimous agreement that offense severity and prior record are the primary determinants of sentencing outcomes (Johnson, Ulmer, & Kramer, 2008; Spohn & Welch, 1987; Ulmer, 2012).…”

Section: Research On Criminal History and Sentencing Outcomesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A small body of research indicates the conviction offense conditions prior record penalties, but this work has been limited to broad categories of crimes (nonviolent vs. violent; for example, Spohn & Welch, 1987), or single offense types (e.g., violent, drug, or property; Kautt & Spohn, 2002; Koeppel, 2014; Kramer & Ulmer, 2009). Furthermore, existing research has not examined variation in the conditional relationship of prior record and conviction offense across the full range of sentence lengths (e.g., Crow, 2008).…”

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confidence: 99%

Analyzing Variation in Prior Record Penalties Across Conviction Offenses

Cassidy

Rydberg

2017

Crime & Delinquency

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The focal concerns perspective suggests that criminal history and the nature of the offense interact to influence judicial assessments of community threat, yet this question has not been subject to systematic empirical examination. Drawing on 4 years of data (2007-2010) from the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing ( N = 75,676), we utilize linear quantile mixed models (LQMM) to examine the impact of prior record on the conditional distribution of sentence lengths across violent, property, drug, and sex offenders, controlling for the effects of important individual and judicial district-level covariates. The results indicate that prior record penalties differ both between and within conviction offense types across the conditional sentence length distribution. Substantive, theoretical, and methodological implications are discussed.

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“…More than any other criteria, prior record and offense severity consistently have been shown to influence sentencing decisions (Miethe and Moore 1985;Myers and Talarico 1987;Spohn and Welch 1987;Welch and Spohn 1986). These variables are widely regarded as ~legally relevant" because they are considered in virtually all jurisdictions to be legitimate criteria in sentencing decisions.…”

Section: To Achieve Fair Sentences Offender Characteristics (Ie Ementioning

confidence: 97%

Determinate sentencing: A feminist and postmodern story

Wonders

1996

Justice Quarterly

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In this article I employ the concept of storytelling, as developed in feminist and postmodern theory, to explore the assumptions underlying the story about determinate sentencing that has dominated sentencing research and policy since the 1970s. Four analytic tools embedtled in storytelling--a critique of objectivity, a focus on process, an understanding of identity, and a new conceptualization of power--are used to investigate core assumptions that guide determinate sentencing policy. Finally, I offer a new story about sentencing and argue that the incarceration crisis fostered by current sentencing policy is in part a crisis of imagination.The story about determinate sentencing, as it is currently told, has been written by both liberals and conservatives over the past two decades. Determinate sentencing legislation has taken several forms but typically consists of legislated minimum, maximum, and/ or fixed sentences for some or all offenses.: Despite profound differences in the goals that they thought determinate sentencing would achieve, liberals and conservatives hold a common set of assumptions critically important in shaping the narrative about sentencing that currently dominates the political landscape. In this article I examine these assumptions in an effort to tell a new story about determinate sentencing. The story that unfolds here reveals that the understanding of sentencing that has guided reform in the past * Thanks to many supportive colleagues at Northern Arizona University for editorial suggestions and constructive comments: ~fifteen jurisdictions had adopted sentencing guidelines to limit judicial discretion; more than ten had eliminated parole release; another twenty-five had adopted parole guidelines; many had narrowed the ambit of good time; and all had enacted mandatory minimum sentence legislation (often requiring minimum ten-, twenty-, or thirty.year terms and sometimes mandatory sentences of life-without-possibility-of-parole)." In addition, the federal government and many states have legislated sentencing guidelines; indeed, "twentytwo states had, or were at work on voluntary or presumptive guidelines" (Tonry 1996:29). All of these strategies are part of a nationwide effort to make sure that the length of sentence is "determinate" or certain (rather than "indeterminate" or uncertain).

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The effect of prior record in sentencing research: An examination of the assumption that any measure is adequate

Cited by 18 publications

References 11 publications

Sentencing Homicide Offenders in the Netherlands: Offender, Victim, and Situational Influences in Criminal Punishment*

Sentencing Homicide Offenders in the Netherlands: Offender, Victim, and Situational Influences in Criminal Punishment*

Analyzing Variation in Prior Record Penalties Across Conviction Offenses

Determinate sentencing: A feminist and postmodern story

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