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Date of Award
2018
Document Type
Restricted Thesis: Campus only access
Abstract
This paper reviews previous research on the effect of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines and builds on the previous literature with updated data from 1996-2016. The paper looks at the effect of the United States v. Booker Supreme Court case on the conviction rates of the Federal Circuit Courts using a logistic regression. Ultimately, I confirm previous studies' results and I conclude that federal judges convict a lower rate. Despite this, defense attorneys still avoid judges, at the potential expense of their clients. I discovered large conviction discrepancies between Circuit Courts and ultimately recommend potential policy changes.
Recommended Citation
Butler, James, "The effect of federal sentencing guidelines on federal conviction rates" (2018). Honors Theses. 1307.
https://scholarship.richmond.edu/honors-theses/1307