This paper is a shortened version of a study undertaken by the Australian Institute of Criminology in 1982. The study's aim was to review the extent of sentencing disparity relating exclusively to drug offenders at the Federal level. Some 300 sentencing decisions decided between 1976 and 1980 were examined, and it was found that when drug type and quantity of drug were taken into account, together with a further discrete number of other factors, differences between sentences were very slight. In the course of the study a novel sentencing chart was devised and the present article describes the key features of the methodology used.
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