estion by replicating the methods of Wheeler, Weisburd and Bode (1982). Specifically, the proposed study examines the same variables looked at by the authors for their ability to predict severity of sentencing of federal court judges for white-collar offenses; however, of primarily research interest in this replication will be the determination of whether severity of sentencing significantly differs as a function of differences in offenders' socioeconomic status.
According to Shapiro (1980), white collar crimes may be defined as economic offenses committed through the use of fraud, and/or deception and collusion. The primary research interest in the study is an exploration for the impact of newly enacted federal guidelines imposing mandatory imprisonment on white-collar sentencing disparity due to differences in offenders' socioeconomic status.
As such, the study is of a replication of research conducted by Wheeler, Weisburd and Bode (1982) which was a study of federal sentencing for white collar cri
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