How Do Judges Decide?: The Search for Fairness and Justice in Punishment / Edition 2

by Cassia Spohn

Overview

How are sentences for federal, state, and local crimes determined?
Is this process fairly and justly applied to all concerned?
How have reforms affected the process over the last 25 years?

Offering a comprehensive overview of the sentencing process in the United States, How Do Judges Decide? The Search for Fairness and Justice in Punishment explores these questions and more. Author Cassia Spohn first discusses the overall concept of punishment and then analyzes individual aspects of it, including the sentencing process, the responsibility of the judge, and disparity and discrimination in sentencing. This Second Edition offers new information on the impact of sentencing reforms, including recent research and case law, updated statistics in tables and figures, and new boxed highlights.

Key Features

• Helps students understand patterns in the wide discretion and latitude given to judges when determining penalties within the framework of the U.S. judicial system
• Engages the reader with "Focus on an Issue" sections, which analyze key issues such as gender and sentencing (Ch.4) and the impact of race on sentencing for drug offenses (Ch.5)
• Examines sentencing reforms and their impact, providing students with up-to-date information on how punishment is meted out in U.S. courts.
• Contains boxed excerpts in each chapter from books and articles, with a variety of case studies on topics such as the O.J. Simpson murder trial, judicial surveys, and comparison of sentences in different jurisdictions by gender
• Offers new material on specialty courts and the prosecutor's role in sentencing
• Concludes each chapter with discussion questions

How Do Judges Decide? is an ideal text for upper-division undergraduate and graduate courses on the judicial system, criminal law, and law and society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781412961042
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	12/17/2008
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	376
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Cassia Spohn is School Director and Foundation Professor of Criminal Justice at Arizona State University. She is the author of several books, including The Color of Justice: Race, Ethnicity, and Crime in America (with Sam Walker and Miriam De Lone) and How Do Judges Decide? The Search for Fairness and Equity in Sentencing. She has published a number of articles examining prosecutors’ charging decisions in sexual assault cases and exploring the effect of race/ethnicity on charging and sentencing decisions. Her current research interests include the effect of race and gender on court processing decisions, victim characteristics and case outcomes in sexual assault cases, judicial decision making, sentencing of drug offenders, and the deterrent effect of imprisonment. In 1999, she was awarded the University of Nebraska Outstanding Research and Creative Activity Award.

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1: THE GOALS OF SENTENCING
Why Punish?
How Much To Punish?
Theories of Punishment and Judges' Sentencing Decisions
Conclusion
CHAPTER TWO: THE SENTENCING PROCESS
The Judge's Options at Sentencing
Sentencing as a Collaborative Exercise
The Sentencing Process
CHAPTER 3: HOW DO JUDGES DECIDE?
Modeling the Sentencing Process
Sentencing and Case Attributes
Sentencing and Characteristics of the Judge
How do Judges Decide?
CHAPTER 4: SENTENCING DISPARITY AND DISCRIMINATION: A FOCUS ON GENDER
Types of Sentencing Discrimination
Gender Disparity in Sentencing
Disparity and Discrimination in Sentencing
CHAPTER 5: SENTENCING DISPARITY AND DISCRIMINATION: A FOCUS ON RACE/ETHNICITY
Racial Disparity in Sentencing
Race and Judges' Sentencing Decisions
Race and the Death Penalty: A Failed Experiment?
Justice From the Bench?
CHAPTER 6: THE SENTENCING REFORM MOVEMENT
Structured Sentencing Reforms
Presumptive Sentencing Guidelines
Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Statutes
Three-Strikes-and-You're Out Laws
Truth in Sentencing Laws
Three Decades of Reform
CHAPTER 7: THE IMPACT OF SENTENCING REFORMS
Have Sentencing Reforms Led to More Punitive Sentences?
Have Sentencing Reforms Led to a Reduction in Crime?
Have Sentencing Reforms Reduced Disparity and Discrimination?
Assessing the Impact of the Sentencing Reform Movement

Editorial Reviews

"It is the most comprehensive analysis of sentencing practices in the United States in general, and of how judges decide in particular.  It provides ample statistics of the realities of punishment and provides readers with the conclusions from several decades of research investigating judicial discretion. "

Richard D. Hartley