Section 2. Primary Offense Severity Levels

NOTES: This section examines primary offense severity levels--their distribution, and their variation by gender, race, age, and circuit. It also presents information on the sentencing guidelines severity levels of the first additional offense and first prior offense used in calculating sentencing guidelines points.

FINDINGS:

• Most offenses fell into sentencing guidelines levels three to five. Only 410 of the 93,131 scoresheets analyzed here were at level 10 (Figure 1).
• Males were more likely to commit offenses at levels 4 through 10 than females (Table 1).
• White offenders were somewhat more likely than black offenders to commit offenses at levels 1, 2, 4, 6, 7 and 8. Black offenders were more likely to commit offenses at levels 3, 5, and 9 (Table 2).
• Offenders in the youngest age group (17 and under) were more likely than older offenders to commit offenses at levels 8-10. Offenders age 18-24 were the next most likely to commit offenses at levels 8-10, but offenders age 50 and over were most likely to commit offense at level 5 to 7. Despite their greater odds of committing the most serious offenses, most of those age 24 and under committed offenses at levels 1-4 (Table 3).