Sentences and Other Sanctions in the Criminal Courts of Baltimore, Chicago, and Detroit
The imposition of formal sanctions by government as embodied in our criminal courts arouses the interest of both the general public and social scientists. There is something dramatic and symbolically potent in the stripping of liberty and even life from a fellow human being. The significance attached to the imposition of a long prison term has led both the public and scholars to focus on the length of prison sentences. Most scholarly research has concerned itself with the relationship between sentence length and such variables as the proclivities of the judge, the social and economic characteristics of the defendants, the nature of the crime, and the manner of conviction (plea of guilty versus conviction after trial).' But the significant sanctions meted out by crimi-