Judges on the Benchmark

Abstract

Judges receive limited information on how their sentencing practices contribute to inter-judge sentencing disparities which can undermine equity and the perceptions of legitimacy in the criminal justice system. Internal benchmarking methods like the one used in this study could inform judges that their sentencing practices are disparate from their peers and potentially mitigate sentencing disparities. Depending on the type of disparity that a judge contributes to, an internal benchmark system would highlight discretionary decisions and provide a feedback system from which courts and sentencing commissions could evaluate efforts to reduce inter-judge disparities. The approach used here could be adapted in states to provide regular feedback throughout a judge’s tenure and to help move judges that contribute most to disparities to have sentencing practices more similar to their judicial peers.