Fear of Judging: Sentencing Guidelines in the Federal Courts

A full-scale history, analysis and critique of the new sentencing regime is examined in this text, showing how the present system has burdened the courts, dehumanized the sentencing process and by repressing judicial discretion, eroded the constitutional balance of powers. Although termed the new sentencing guidelines , the new sentencing rules are mandatory and before 1987, when the complex bureaucratic apparatus was imposed, federal judges exercised wide discretion in criminal sentencing. The text argues that the guidelines have failed to achieve their goal of addressing inequities in sentencing and defends a vision of justice that requires judges to perform what has traditionally been considered their central task - exercising justice.