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Simultaneous Scaling of Offense Seriousness and Sentence Severity Through Canonical Correlation Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

James C. McDavid  and
Brian Stipak
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Abstract

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This article describes and illustrates a new, easily applied method of scaling the severity of different types of criminal sentences and the seriousness of different types of crimes. In contrast to past approaches, this method is based on actual judicial performance, not on opinions or subjective scaling procedures. Using this approach, the effects on sentencing of variables other than type of crime can be examined.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , 1982 , pp. 147 - 162
Copyright
Copyright © 1982 The Law and Society Association.

Footnotes

*

The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance they received from others. Carl Hensler offered useful suggestions for analysis, and Herbert Kritzer provided helpful comments on a draft of the manuscript. Glen Kreider developed the program for splitting the data into two random subsamples. Ralph Perez and Bob Stevenson contributed to making the data base useful for analysis. Finally, Jeffrey Bastuscheck of the Central Regional Advisory Committee, Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, provided the data tape, as well as advice on its use.

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