Dr. John H. Kramer

Dr. John KramerStaff DirectorU.S. Sentencing Commission

John H. Kramer and Jeffery T. Ulmer, Penn State University, along with Penn State political scientists James Eisenstein and Lisa L. Miller, were awarded a $240,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, Law and Social Sciences Division for a quantitative and qualitative study of inter-district variation in federal criminal justice.
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Jeffery T. Ulmer and John H. Kramer, Penn State University, were awarded a $45,000 grant from the Pennsylvania

John Kramer. Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology at the Pennsylvania State University, USA.

PCPA is pleased to have John Kramer, Professor, Crime, Law and Justice and Sociology, Pennsylvania State University attending.Dr. Kramer will be presenting an overview of the outcomes study he is working on with the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.

AGENDA

Welcome and Introductions Presentation: John Kramer, Penn State University

While the primary determinants of a judge's sentencing decisions are seriousness of the crime and the defendant's prior record , the three factors of race , age and gender clearly play a significant role , adds Dr. John H. Kramer , professor of sociology and former director of the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing based at Penn State.

Steffensmeier and Kramer , along with Dr. Jeffrey Ulmer , assistant professor of sociology at Purdue University , are co-authors of the paper , The Interaction of Race , Gender , and Age in Criminal Sentencing : The Punishment Cost of Being Young , Black and Male , which appeared recently in the journal , Criminology.
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Women and older offenders were seen as posing less danger to community safety than younger Black males , Kramer says.Also , the culpability of women and older offenders was more often mitigated by prospects of being victimized themselves -- by coercion at the hands of men ( in the case of for women ) , drug/alcohol problems or psychological disorders..

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Young Black males were seen as lacking such social bonds that were thought to insulate individuals from future criminal involvement , Kramer says.Indicators of stability and conventionality such as employment or care of others were likely to favor female defendants and least likely to favor young Black male defenders..

With the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing's responsibility to monitor the impact of sentencing guidelines and to reduce or eliminate unwarranted disparity , these findings suggest that the commission explore why young Black males who have prior records similar to those of Whites and have committed similarly serious offenses are treated more severely at sentencing.

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EDITORS : Dr. Steffensmeier is at ( 814 ) 863-1690 and ( 814 ) 466-6476 or at d4s@psu.edu by email ; Dr. Kramer is at ( 814 ) 863-2797 or at jhk@psu.edu by email.

Dr. John Kramer is Associate Head of the Department of Sociology and Crime, Law and Justice at Penn State University.

Kramer has made a sociological career out of criminal justice, serving as prison guard and counselor at a lockup, as parole officer and sentencing board member and, in the 1990s, as the Director of the United States Sentencing Commission.

Professor John H. Kramer , Director , US Sentencing CommissionCSG/ERC Staff

John Kramer, a professor at Penn State University who is a former staff director of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, said that the expedited consideration of the two cases suggests that the justices in the majority in Blakely didn't expect the ripple effect of the decision to come so fast.

"I think the court had to be a little surprised at the panic," Mr. Kramer said.

"My guess is that, because of the political fallout, the court will want to find some leverage for finding the federal guidelines constitutional."

Mr. Kramer noted that all it would take for such a holding would be the defection of one member of Justice Scalia's five-justice majority in Blakely.