Red, White-, and Blue-Collar Crime: Federal Sentencing Practices Among White-Collar and Blue-Collar Offenders

Authors

Henna Judge, Fordham University School of Law

Keywords

sentence; sentencing; criminal; crime; street crime; white-collar; blue-collar; fraud; violent; disparity; bias; discretion; inequitable; discrepancy; Sentencing Commission; Sentencing Guidelines; manual; memorandum; opinion; accountability; transparency; 3553; courts; judge; jurisprudence; law enforcement; litigation; Booker; Gall; Marvin Frankel; Edwin Sutherland; Paul Manafort; factors; prison; Sentencing Reform Act; district court; departure; variance; excessive; range

Abstract

Under the current federal sentencing regime, district courts exercise immense amounts of discretion when sentencing. Though strict adherence to the U.S. Sentencing Commission Guidelines (the “Guidelines”) was once mandatory, courts must now use these Guidelines as an advisory starting point and make a series of fact-specific determinations when sentencing a defendant. Though judicial discretion in this realm aids in preventing undue reliance on Guidelines-range recommendations that can lack nuance, it also invites bias.

In recent years, scholars and courts alike have called attention to a potential disparity in the way blue-collar and white-collar offenders are sentenced. This Note examines relevant scholarship and jurisprudence to determine whether such a disparity exists and, if so, why it has prevailed. This Note also explores the ramifications of such a disparity and discusses possible justifications for a discrepancy in sentencing patterns between categories of offenders.

This Note then argues that the federal sentencing regime lacks adequate safeguards and proposes that judicial transparency and accountability should be foremost considerations when revising the sentencing regime. To promote such values, it proposes that 18 U.S.C. § 3553 be amended to require written sentencing opinions from sentencing courts that elucidate their considerations at sentencing and their reasons for imposing a given sentence. Such a requirement, this Note argues, would lay bare courts’ sentencing deliberations and thereby allow the public, reviewing courts, and oversight agencies, such as the U.S. Sentencing Commission, to discern patterns of disparity that may exist in the sentencing regime.

Recommended Citation

Henna Judge, Red, White-, and Blue-Collar Crime: Federal Sentencing Practices Among White-Collar and Blue-Collar Offenders, 94 Fordham L. Rev. 1141 (2025).
Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/flr/vol94/iss3/7