FACT SHEET:
SENTENCING GUIDELINES AND REDUCING CRIME

Sentencing reform has been an unqualified success in reducing crime and preventing unwarranted disparities in sentencing. While no single law or policy is by itself responsible for today’s low levels of violent crime, many independent studies of our criminal justice system confirm what our common sense tells us: increased incarceration means reduced crime. The federal sentencing guidelines have worked in coordination with state truth-in-sentencing laws and mandatory minimum sentences to put the most violent, repeat offenders behind bars, keep them there for sentences that fit their crimes, and ensure the safety of Americans in communities across the nation. The Justice Department is committed to prosecuting federal crimes and ensuring that convicted criminals are serving appropriate sentences for their criminal acts.

Crime Rates At a 30-Year Low:

• The violent crime rate in America has plummeted to its lowest level in a generation. Had the per-capita crime rates of 1993 occurred in 2003, we would have suffered nearly 6 million more violent acts of murder, robbery, sexual assault, and assault. Thirty-four million violent crimes were not committed in the last decade than would have been had violent crime rates remained the same.
  (Source: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/tables/viortrdtab.htm)

Federal Prisoners Spending More Time in Prison:

• According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the average time federal prisoners spend behind bars has increased 68 percent since 1990—from 19 months to 32 months. For state prisoners, the average time served is up 30 percent.
  (Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics. Compendium of Federal Justice Statistics, 1990 & 2002)

More Violent Offenders Behind Bars:

• Ninety-one percent of the people in state prisons are violent offenders, repeat offenders, or both. Almost two-thirds of the increase in prison population between 1995 and 2001 was due to the increase in violent offenders incarcerated.
  (Source: Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisoners in 2002)

Most Federal Felony Sentences For Serious Crimes:

§          A recent study shows that over 66 percent of federal felony cases sentenced involved drug crimes, gun crimes, or fraud offenses—some of the most violent offenses.
(Source: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/cfjs0205.pdf)

Sentences Go Up, Crime Goes Down:

• Studies have found that for every one percent increase in the prison population, there is a .1 to .3 percent decrease in the crime rate. That is, the drop in crime of the 1990’s would have been 10 to 30 percent smaller than it actually was without the increase in the number of criminals in prison.
  (Sources: Levitt, Steven D. “The effect of prison population size on crime rates: Evidence from prison overcrowding litigation,” 111 Q.J. Econ. 319 (1996). Spelman, William. “The limited importance of prison expansion.” In A. Blumstein and J. Wallman (Eds.) The Crime Drop in America. New York: Cambridge University Press (2000))

###
05-327