DOI: 10.3886/icpsr03450.v1
title: Pennsylvania Sentencing Data, 1998
title: Version 1

description: The Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing is a legislative agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania that develops sentencing guidelines for judges to use when sentencing felony and misdemeanor offenses. The judges then report sentences to the Commission on a Guideline Sentence Form. This data collection reflects all felonies and misdemeanors reported to the Commission that were sentenced during calendar year 1998. The data are contained in four files reflecting three sets of sentencing guidelines. The 1991 sentencing guidelines pertain to all offenses committed on or after August 9, 1991, up until the time that the 1994 guidelines became effective. The 1994 sentencing guidelines became effective for all offenses committed on or after August 12, 1994. The 1997 sentencing guidelines became effective for all offenses committed on or after June 13, 1997. In this data collection, the variable "GLEPOCH" denotes which set of guidelines pertained to the offense. Because the 1997 guidelines differ significantly from the 1991 and 1994 guidelines, sentences under the 1997 guidelines are reported in separate datasets. Parts 1 and 2, Records Data, provide information on each offender, including rudimentary demographic characteristics and prior offense history. Parts 3 and 4, Offense Data, contain information on each offense, including the statutory citation for the offense, the Offense Gravity Score assigned by the Commission, the offender's Prior Record Score, and the sentence given the offender. Parts 1 and 3 contain data from cases sentenced under the 1991 and 1994 guidelines, while Parts 2 and 4 contain data from cases sentenced under the 1997 guidelines.
description: All cases reported on Guideline Sentence Forms sent to the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing by judges.
description: Datasets: DS0: Study-Level Files DS1: Records Data for 1991 and 1994 Sentencing Guidelines DS2: Records Data for 1997 Sentencing Guidelines DS3: Offense Data for 1991 and 1994 Sentencing Guidelines DS4: Offense Data for 1997 Sentencing Guidelines
description: All felony and misdemeanor offenses sentenced in Pennsylvania in 1998.
description: (1) The data files should not be used separately for analysis. Files can be linked using the Commission ID (CID). In the Records Data (Parts 1 and 2), the CID is unique. In the Offense Data (Parts 3 and 4), one CID can have multiple offenses. (2) The unit of analysis is determined by the user but could include: (a) Judicial proceeding: A proceeding in which all offenses for which the offender was convicted were pending before the court for sentencing at the same time. (b) Transaction: A crime or crimes committed by an offender at a single time or in temporally continuous actions that were part of the same episode, event, or incident, or which were conspiracy and the offense that was conspired to. There can be multiple transactions within one judicial proceeding. Guidelines for 1997 do not use transaction. (c) Offense: There can be multiple offenses within one transaction. (3) These data represent the public version of the 1998 sentencing data for which three confidential variables (offender's name, Social Security number, judge's name) were removed from the dataset and four additional variables (docket number, offense tracking number, police photo identification number, and state identification number) were blanked by ICPSR. Information on obtaining the full dataset is provided in the codebook. (4) The codebook and data collection instruments are provided by ICPSR as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file. The PDF file format was developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated and can be accessed using PDF reader software, such as the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy of the Acrobat Reader is provided on the ICPSR Web site.