Handbook on Sentencing Policies and Practices in the 21st Century

Cassia Spohn is a Foundation Professor and Director of the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Arizona State University. She is a Fellow of the American Society of Criminology, a Fellow of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, and a Fellow of the Western Society of Criminology. Her research interests include prosecutorial and judicial decision making, the intersections of race, ethnicity, gender, crime and justice, and sexual assault case processing decisions. Pauline K. Brennan is a Professor and the Ph.D. Program Director for the School of Criminology and Justice Studies at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Her research focuses on racial and gender inequities in court processing, corrections policy, and issues related to female offenders and victims. Her work has appeared in the top journals in the field, including Justice Quarterly, The Journal of Quantitative Criminology, and Criminal Justice and Behavior.

INTRODUCTION; PART I. THE EVOLUTION OF SENTENCING POLICIES AND PRACTICES; 1. The Transformation of Sentencing in the 21st Century; 2. Sentencing Guidelines in the U.S.; 3. Sentencing Guidelines Outside the United States; PART II. ISSUES IN GUIDELINE AND NON-GUIDELINE SENTENCING; 4. Inter-District Differences and Extra-Legal Disparity under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines: The Trees Are “Substantially” more Important than the Forest; 5. Minimum Sentencing for Serious Offences: Lessons from Australia; 6. Discretionary Release Practices for Juveniles Facing Life: A Review of State Parole and Resentencing Procedures; PART III. PLEA BARGAINING; 7. Plea Negotiations: An Australian Perspective; 8. Plea Bargaining in the Shadow of the Trial; 9. Estimating the Size of Plea Discounts: Why Does It Matter?; 10. To Plead or Not to Plead? ‘Guilt is the Question. Re-Thinking Plea Decision-Making in Anglo-American Countries; PART IV. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT; 11. Evolving Attitudes Toward Capital Punishment; 12. Disparities in Death Penalty Prosecution and Punishment: A Review of Recent Research; PART V. CURRENT CONTROVERSIES; 13. Rethinking the Role of Criminal History in Sentencing; 14. AB109 in California; Realignment, Decarceration and Crime in Los Angeles County; 15. The Problem with Problem-Solving Courts: The Black Box Remains Unopened After Thirty Years; 16. Restorative Justice Practices and Challenges in the United States