National Archive of Criminal Justice Data
This dataset is maintained and distributed by the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD), the criminal justice archive within ICPSR. NACJD is primarily sponsored by three agencies within the U.S. Department of Justice: the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention .
Massachusetts Statewide Criminal Justice Guidelines Evaluation, 1979: Sentencing Data (ICPSR 7909)
Principal Investigator(s): Sparks, Richard F.
Summary:
This data collection is the result of a project established to study the development, implementation, and use of statewide sentencing guidelines and to report on the perceptions of criminal justice system personnel and inmates regarding those guidelines. Funded by the National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, the project was carried out by the Rutgers University School of Criminal Justice from October 1978 to June 1981. Additional data produced by this project are contained in two other studies held by ICPSR: NEW JERSEY STATEWIDE CRIMINAL JUSTICE GUIDELINES EVALUATION, 1979 (ICPSR 7910) and NEW JERSEY STATEWIDE CRIMINAL JUSTICE GUIDELINES EVALUATION, 1980: INMATE SURVEY DATA (ICPSR 7911). The Massachusetts Sentencing Data contains information on a random sample of 1,440 convicted defendants sentenced in the Massachusetts Superior Court between November 1977 and October 1978. The sample represents approximately one-third of the actual number of defendants sentenced in the Massachusetts Superior Court during a one-year period. The cases were selected and coded by the Massachusetts Sentencing Guidelines project during 1979. Variables include information about each defendant's juvenile and adult criminal history, characteristics of the current offense, and the elements of the disposition of the current offense. Demographic data include defendant's age, sex, race, marital status, employment status, occupation, income, number of children, educational attainment, and drug and alcohol use history.
Access Notes
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These data are freely available.
Dataset(s)
Study Description
Citation
Sparks, Richard F. Massachusetts Statewide Criminal Justice Guidelines Evaluation, 1979: Sentencing Data. ICPSR07909-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2001. doi:10.3886/ICPSR07909.v1
Persistent URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR07909.v1
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Funding
This survey was funded by:
- United States Department of Justice. Law Enforcement Assistance Administration. National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice (78-NI-AX-0147)
Scope of Study
Subject Terms: crime, criminal histories, criminal justice system, defendants, disposition (legal), evaluation, inmates, offender profiles, offenders, offenses, sentencing, sentencing guidelines, socioeconomic status, state courts
Geographic Coverage: Massachusetts, United States
Time Period:
- 1979
Date of Collection:
- 1979-02--1979-06
Universe: Defendants sentenced in the Massachusetts Superior Court during 1979.
Data Types: administrative records data
Methodology
Sample: Defendants in 10 of 14 Massachusetts counties. Approximately 20 percent of these cases were excluded from the sample due to insufficient information in their records.
Data Source:
records located in county district attorneys' offices
Version(s)
Original ICPSR Release: 1984-03-18
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