ABSTRACT

Sentencing has been defined as the corner stone of the judicial system (Sallmann & Willis, 1984). Though traditionally research on judicial decision-making has primarily focused on the jury, in recent years attention has increasingly shifted toward the construction of a specific model that explains judges' decision-making. A key issue has been to explain the disparity in sentencing among judges. McFatter (1986) defines disparity as any variation in the severity of the judge's sentencing for similar offences or the disparity among different judges for the similar cases. Fitzmaurice and Pease (1986) state that disparity occurs when people who share similar characteristics and commit similar crimes receive different sentences. Brantingham (1985) distinguishes two types of judicial disparity. First order disparity occurs when a judge is consistent in similar cases, but is consistently different from other judges. Second order disparity occurs if a judge is inconsistent in similar cases.