Roundtable: Criminal History Enhancements and Criminal Careers

Session Submission Type: Roundtable Session

Abstract

An offender’s criminal history is a major sentencing factor in all American jurisdictions; in sentencing guidelines jurisdictions, offenders in the highest criminal history category often have recommended prison sentences that are many times longer than the recommended sentences for offenders in the lowest category. Thus as an offender’s criminal career progresses, the severity of his punishments increases. Yet one of the most robust findings in criminology is the age-crime curve which shows that almost all offenders eventually desist from crime. Thus, paradoxically, while the aging offender is getting the most severe sentences of his life due to the criminal history enhancement, his residual career is becoming shorter and shorter. Punishment theorists—and guidelines criminal history enhancements—have focused on traditional justifications for punishment (risk and retribution) while ignoring the implications of life course and criminal careers research. The purpose of this roundtable is to bring together experts in law, sentencing, and life-course and criminal careers criminology to discuss justifications for and criticisms of criminal history enhancements.

Sub Unit

• Area XIII: Roundtable Sessions

Chair

• Rhys Hester, University of Minnesota Law School

Discussants

• David P. Farrington, Cambridge University

• Richard Frase, University of Minnesota

• Alex R. Piquero, University of Texas at Dallas

• Jennifer Skeem, University of California, Berkeley

• Michael Tonry, University of Minnesota Law School

• Jeffery T. Ulmer, Pennsylvania State University

• Megan Kurlychek, University at Albany, SUNY