Calling all sociologists

The University of Chicago Legal Forum conference on Punishment and Crime was brought to a fascinating close with panels covering the “sociological perspective” and the “philosophical perspective.”  Both panels were great, and I particularly came away from the first panel with a strong belief that the modern development of sentencing reforms would be greatly advanced by serious study of the sociology of sentencing decision-making and decision-makers. 

As I was listening to the sociologists describe their discipline and what it can and does contribute to the study of punishment and crime, I came to realize that a lot of the early sentencing reform literature incorporated a lot of sociological insights.  (The chapters of Marvin Frankel’s Criminal Sentences: Law Without Order (1972) concerning the work of judges, parole officials and probation officers are filled with such insights.)  However, the panelists today confirmed my sense that sentencing decision-making has not been a central topic of  sociological study for quite some time. 

Perhaps there are a number of sociologists currently examining modern sentencing reforms.  If there are, I hope they will send me their work; if there aren’t, I hope that Blakely might engender as much study of sentencing in the sociology academy as it is now engendering in the legal academy.