Table 1.

Sample characteristics of the offenders

	Federal (n = 301)	Provincial (n = 121)	Male (n = 381)	Female (n = 41)	Total sample (n = 422)
% of total sample	71.3	28.7	90.3	9.7	100.0
Mean age	40.6	34.0	38.6	39.7	38.7
Age range	19–82	18–63	18–82	21–60	18–82
Non-Caucasian (%)	38.2	35.3	38.8	25.0	37.4
Secondary education or higher (%)	51.0	53.7 %	51.1	58.5	51.8
Employed prior to current sentence (%)	62.4	56.7	63.0	40.0	60.8
Unskilled employment (%; N = 282)	33.5	41.1	33.1	56.0	35.4
Income <$20,000 (%)	41.1	49.1	41.9	57.9	43.4
Median sentence length in weeks	290.5	52.0	190.0	56.5	173.0
Indeterminate sentence (%)	28.5	0.0	23.0	4.2	21.6

The median sentence length was used because of the large number indeterminate (e.g., life) sentences. Indeterminate sentences were scored as 9999. Note that not all of the offenders granted permission for the file review. Consequently the sample sizes for average sentence length were n = 242 for federal, n = 78 for provincial, n = 296 for males, n = 24 for females, and n = 320 for the full sample