The Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing is a legislative
agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania that develops sentencing
guidelines for judges to use when sentencing felony and misdemeanor
offenses. The judges then report sentences to the Commission on a
Guideline Sentence Form. This data collection reflects all felonies
and misdemeanors reported to the Commission that were sentenced during
calendar year 1998. The data are contained in four files reflecting
three sets of sentencing guidelines. The 1991 sentencing guidelines
pertain to all offenses committed on or after August 9, 1991, up until
the time that the 1994 guidelines became effective. The 1994
sentencing guidelines became effective for all offenses committed on
or after August 12, 1994. The 1997 sentencing guidelines became
effective for all offenses committed on or after June 13, 1997. In
this data collection, the variable "GLEPOCH" denotes which set of
guidelines pertained to the offense. Because the 1997 guidelines
differ significantly from the 1991 and 1994 guidelines, sentences
under the 1997 guidelines are reported in separate datasets. Parts 1
and 2, Records Data, provide information on each offender, including
rudimentary demographic characteristics and prior offense
history. Parts 3 and 4, Offense Data, contain information on each
offense, including the statutory citation for the offense, the Offense
Gravity Score assigned by the Commission, the offender's Prior Record
Score, and the sentence given the offender. Parts 1 and 3 contain data
from cases sentenced under the 1991 and 1994 guidelines, while Parts 2
and 4 contain data from cases sentenced under the 1997 guidelines.
Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing. Pennsylvania Sentencing Data, 1998. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2006-03-30. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03450.v1
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United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice
A downloadable version of data for this study is available however, certain identifying information in the downloadable version may have been masked or edited to protect respondent privacy. Additional data not included in the downloadable version are available in a restricted version of this data collection. For more information about the differences between the downloadable data and the restricted data for this study, please refer to the codebook notes section of the PDF codebook. Users interested in obtaining restricted data must complete and sign a Restricted Data Use Agreement, describe the research project and data protection plan, and obtain IRB approval or notice of exemption for their research.
Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research