How Do Judges Decide?

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.

How are sentences for Federal, State, and Local crimes determined in the United States? Is this process fairly and justly applied to all concerned? How have reforms affected the process over the last 25 years? This text for advanced undergraduate students in criminal justice programs throughout North America seeks to answer these questions.

Cassia Spohn is a Professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Arizona State University, where she also serves as the Director of Graduate Programs. Prior to joining the ASU faculty in 2006, she was a professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She is the co-author of three books: The Color of Justice: Race, Ethnicity, and Crime in America: Courts: A Text/Reader and Rape Law Reform: A Grassroots Movement and Its Impact. Dr. Spohn has published extensively on prosecutors' charging decisions in sexual assault cases, the effect of race/ethnicity and gender on sentencing decisions, sentencing of drug offenders, and the deterrent effect of imprisonment.