While sentencing consistency is a major principle of most of the justice systems, some features of sentencing disparities remain understudied. The purpose of the current study is to examine regional variation in aggravation assessment of child sexual abuse (CSA). We use data of CSA convictions given in Finnish district courts (n = 909). Multilevel regression modeling is used as the analytic method to assess whether the variation persists even after controlling for the offense characteristics.

The descriptive results show that there are remarkable differences between courts. The results from the multilevel regression analysis suggest that the between-court variation in convictions is not fully explained by the observed offense characteristics, as the variation persists even after controlling for these. While the current results are suggestive of between-court sentencing disparities, the source for this variation remains speculative. More research is needed on data allowing for both between- and within-court analyses.

虽然量刑一致性是大多数司法系统的主要原则，但量刑差异的某些特征仍未得到充分研究。当前研究的目的是检查儿童性虐待 (CSA) 加重评估的区域差异。我们使用芬兰地方法院 (n = 909) 提供的 CSA 定罪数据。多层次回归模型被用作分析方法，以评估即使在控制了犯罪特征后变化是否仍然存在。

描述性结果表明，法院之间存在显着差异。多层次回归分析的结果表明，法院间定罪的差异并不能完全用观察到的犯罪特征来解释，因为即使在控制了这些特征之后，差异仍然存在。虽然目前的结果暗示法院之间的量刑差异，但这种差异的来源仍然是推测性的。需要对数据进行更多研究，以便进行法庭间和法庭内的分析。