An examination of a desert-based presumptive sentence schedule

To reduce the problem of sentencing disparity (unlike sentences for like offenses), the Committee for the Study of Incarceration proposed a determinate sentence scheme based on a desert theory of punishment. While the proposal at first glance may appear to solve many sentencing problems, this paper attempts to show its defects and some of the problems involved in (1) determinate sentence schedules generally, (2) desert as a principle of punishment, and (3) basing a determinate sentence schedule on a desert theory.     

The general and the president

He has written widely on the presidency and American politics. Among his books are A Thousand Days; The Imperial Presidency;and The Crisis of Confidence. General MacArthur and President Truman: The Struggle for Control of American Foreign Policyis being reissued by Transaction.     

Characteristics of married and unmarried adolescent mothers and their partners

In a middle-class, urban-clinic sample of 275, mostly Caucasian, adolescent mothers and their partners living in Utah, three groups were identified and their psychosocial characteristics were compared. Couples married at the time of conception (N=22) enjoyed more positive responses from prospective grandparents and earned more than couples not married at the time of conception. On the other hand, these initially married youths were much more likely to be high-school dropouts, which suggests limits in their lifetime earning capacities, and they were not more likely to identify one another as sources of emotional support. Couples who married between conception and delivery (N=110) reported that prospective grandparents responded less favorably to news of the pregnancy than did relatives of the initially married couples, but while their current salaries were lower, they were much more likely to be continuing with their education. Those who married after conception also had fewer antisocial and conduct disorders than young men and women who chose to continue in a dating relationship (N=29). Overall, the couples who married after conception appeared to face less severe problems than either the initially-married couples or the steady daters.This research was supported by grant number APR 000922-02-0 from the Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Programs to Drs. Elster and Lamb.where he and Dr. Lamb conduct research on pregnant teens, teenaged parents, and their children. Ms. Peters and Mr. Kahn are graduate students in School of Education at the University of Utah, while Ms. Tavare is a biostatistician at the University of Utah Medical Center.