Disparity in Sex Offender Sentencing

At the end of last week, Professor Berman at Sentencing Law & Policy starts a needed discussion about how widely sentences of sex offenders can vary from state to state.  The case that precipitated the post was in Kansas:

A Topeka man convicted of repeatedly raping and sodomizing a 14-year-old girl was sentenced to three years probation, rather than nearly 13 years in jail.

Orlando Paul Cisneros was released yesterday from the Shawnee County Jail after Judge Matthew Dowd sentenced him to three years of intensive supervised probation.

A jury had found Cisneros guilty of 17 charges, including aggravated indecent liberties, criminal sodomy and rape. Under sentencing guidelines, Dowd could have sentenced Cisneros to 13 years in jail.

The sentencing judge felt that the defendant had a good chance at rehabilitation and that severe depression was an important cause of the defendant's actions.  This led Berman to comment:

These rationales might sensibly support a prison sentence of less that 13 years, but I can't see how "a good chance of rehabilitation" justifies a probationary term.  The DA has vowed an appeal, and I would expect and hope that a Kansas appellate court will demand some prison time.

That last comment led to quite an extensive debate in the comments, a discussion that is very good compared to normal blog comment debates about sex offenders.  Ultimately, I think Berman has the best of the argument.  While some may see my posts here as "part of the sex offender's cheering section," I think the truth is very different.  Like Berman, I think the draconian sentences handed down because of federal sentencing guidelines should not be part of a just society.  However, I also feel that particularly in the context of rape prosecutions, convictions are too rare and sentences often too light.  There is nothing inconsistent with arguing that sex offenders generally have been subject to penalties that are often counterproductive because of their severity while also arguing that certain subpopulations of sex offenders are under-punished.

Comments

[Steve]

Amen.