Sentencing Guidelines in the United States

Federal Sentencing Guidelines Legal Materials

The Federal Sentencing Guidelines (a/k/a “Sentencing Guidelines for the United States Courts”) are published as part of Title 18 of the United States Code (see “United States Code.”). The Guidelines are also published in the Federal Sentencing Guidelines Manual.

In addition, the current Guidelines are searchable on Lexis (GENFED;GLINE) and Westlaw (FCJ-FSG). You can pull sections from Lexis using the format: “ussg x” .

More information about the Guidelines is posted by the United States Sentencing Commission.

Case Law: Case law annotations are published after each section of the Guidelines in the United State Code Annotated and the United States Code Service, as well as inWest’s Federal Sentencing Guidelines Digest. For full-text searching, Lexis offers a database of cases interpreting the Federal Sentencing Guidelines (CRIME;FEDSEN).

Historical Editions: The U.S. Sentencing Commission posts free historical editions of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines Manual back to 1987. Westlaw has historical editions of the Manual back to 1997 (FCJ-FSG-OLD). You can get annotated historical editions in outdated volumes of the United States Code Annotated and the United States Code Service and the related databases on Lexis and Westlaw (see “United States Code”).

Organizational Guidelines: The Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations (FSG0) are codified as Chapter 8 of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines Manual. More information is available on U.S. Sentencing Commission’s the Organizational Guidelines page.

Proposed As: The U.S. Sentencing Commission posts Proposed Amendments.

Pardons: For information on Presidential Pardons, see “Criminal Law.”

Treatises: For a discussion of the Guidelines check out Federal Sentencing Law and Practice (West) and/or the Federal Sentencing Reporter, both of which are on Westlaw (FSLP and FCJ-FSR, respectively).

Sentencing Guidelines and the State Laws

Select from the list of U.S. States below for state-specific information on Sentencing Guidelines:

Sentencing

Introduction to Sentencing

Besides Sentencing Guidelines, there are some information about U.S. Sentencing here.

Resources

Sentencing Guidelines in the Criminal Justice System

This section covers the topics below related with Sentencing Guidelines :

Courts

Sentencing and Sanctions

Resources

Sentencing Guidelines Definition in the context of the Federal Court System

A set of rules and principles established by the United States Sentencing Commission that trial judges use as one factor to consider when they determine the sentence for a convicted defendant.