Criminal Sentencing in Urban, Suburban, and Rural Counties

Abstract

Previous research efforts addressing the topic of criminal sentencing disparity have been criticized on a variety of accounts encompassing conceptual, operational, and statistical issues. Drawing from these criticisms, this study undertook to determine whether the length of sentence imposed on felony offenders receiving either a probation or prison term varied among rural, suburban, and urban court settings. Theoretical considerations as well as prior empirical research posited that such differences might occur. Of interest also was whether resultsfrom my earlier study (Austin, 1981) which revealed that the type of sentence imposed on felony offenders varied among rural, suburban, and urban court settings would exhibit a similar pattern with respect to length of sentence. Prior discussion suggested that criminal sentencing, rather than being static, represented a dynamic process and that decisions made at one procedural stage might be strengthened, diluted, or left unchanged by those occurring at a later time. Data for the study consisted ofmy previously employed secondary sample of 1,664 convicted Jowafelony offenders derived from archival sources including the Iowa Division of Adult Corrections and the Bureau of Correctional Evaluation within the Iowa Department of Social Services. Although nojustifiable differences in length of sentence were discovered, the findings when viewed in the context of my earlier work suggest that future studies should, while considering offender related legal and extralegal variables, also consider the role of environmental variables such as court setting and the interaction which may occur among thesefactors in the process ofmovingfrom type to length of sentence.