A Remarkable Look at Sentencing for a Remarkable Set of Drug Defendants

Abstract A new dataset capturing sentencing outcomes for “boat defendants,” a notable group of federal drug offenders who share many characteristics, provides a fresh perspective on many different aspects of federal case-processing and drug-sentencing outcomes. This overview provides a brief look at groundbreaking research based on this dataset, which serves as an anchor article for this issue of the Federal Sentencing Reporter, followed by a history of the creation of this dataset and then commentaries highlighting insights and lessons drawn from this original research.