§2A2.3 Assault: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2024
In fiscal year 2024, 92% of the 51 people sentenced under §2A2.3, "Assault," pleaded guilty, the lowest plea rate in the 2016 to 2025 table. A total of 4 were convicted after a trial. Prison went to 34 (67%), and the median prison term was 6 months.
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Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › §2A2.3 Assault › §2A2.3: FY2024
In brief: In fiscal year 2024, 92% of the 51 people sentenced under §2A2.3, "Assault," pleaded guilty, the lowest plea rate in the 2016 to 2025 table. A total of 4 were convicted after a trial. Prison went to 34 (67%), and the median prison term was 6 months.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 51 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2024. Acquittals and dismissals come from a second source, the Federal Judicial Center's records of 753,808 federal defendants whose cases ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. It is part of the Federal Prosecution Analysis series, which builds on Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System. How the numbers were built: How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built.
A Lower Plea Rate in 2024
Of the 51 people, 47 (92%) pleaded guilty, and 4 were convicted after a trial. Over all fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 96% of people sentenced under this guideline pleaded guilty. For all guidelines in 2024, the figure was 97%.
People who pleaded guilty had a median prison term of 6 months. People convicted at trial had a median of 0.3 months, counting only 3 who went to prison. A group that small does not show how trials generally end under this guideline.
Written plea agreements covered 83% of the guilty pleas, and 17% were straight pleas with no agreement. No mandatory minimum prison term applied to any of the 47 people with that information recorded.
Prison and Probation Results
Prison was the sentence for 34 of the 51 (67%). Probation only, with no prison or other confinement, went to 16 (31%). The all-years share sent to prison was 62%, so 2024 was higher.
Among those sent to prison, the median prison term was 6 months. A quarter received 11.5 months or more, and a quarter received 0.2 months or less. Across every guideline in federal court in 2024, the median was 30 months.
After prison, 31 people (61%) were ordered to serve supervised release. The median term was 12 months.
Position Against the Guideline Range
Within the advisory range: 78% (40). Below the range at the government's request: 4% (2). Below the range without a government request: 8% (4). Above the range: 10% (5).
The share within the range was higher than the 46% for all federal cases in 2024. It was higher than the 69% in 2023 and the 66% in 2025 for this guideline.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 77 | 5.8 months | 97% |
| 2017 | 105 | 6.7 months | 96% |
| 2018 | 82 | 7.1 months | 96% |
| 2019 | 111 | 7 months | 95% |
| 2020 | 79 | 7 months | 96% |
| 2021 | 76 | 6.6 months | 99% |
| 2022 | 68 | 6 months | 97% |
| 2023 | 62 | 6.3 months | 95% |
| 2024 | 51 | 6 months | 92% |
| 2025 | 47 | 6 months | 96% |
Fines, Restitution, and Criminal History
A fine was ordered for 8 people (16%), and restitution for 9 (18%). In criminal history, 71% were in the lowest category, category I, and 6% were in the highest, category VI. Court-martial records have no criminal history field, so no comparison is made with courts-martial.
What a Count of 51 Can and Cannot Show
The 2023 count was 62 people, and the 2025 count was 47. Counts this small can change a share a good deal from one year to the next, and one year is not a trend.
The data includes only people who were convicted and sentenced. Acquittals and dismissals are not counted, and prison terms are the terms imposed, not time served. The fiscal year ran from October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2024.
The Commission lists the offense type for all 51 cases as Assault. There is no close court-martial counterpart for this guideline in the approved crosswalk, so this post reports the federal numbers on their own.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2024 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2A2.3 (51), U.S. Sentencing Commission individual data files. The primary guideline is the one that set the offense level for the most serious count.
Federal fiscal years run from October 1 to September 30. No person, judge, or lawyer is identified in any of these records.
What to Keep in Mind
No parole in federal prison; credit for good conduct. Federal prison has no parole for crimes committed on or after November 1, 1987. A federal prisoner can earn up to 54 days of good conduct credit for each year of the sentence the judge imposed, which is about 15%. Some federal prisoners can also earn First Step Act time credits, but many offenses make a person ineligible. The numbers in this post are the sentences judges imposed, not the time people actually served.
Federal supervised release. Most federal prison sentences are followed by a term of supervised release that the judge sets as part of the sentence. A person who violates it can be sent back to prison. A court-martial cannot sentence anyone to supervision after release. Military parole and mandatory supervised release are decided later by a board, not by the judge at trial.
Who decides the sentence, and under what rules. Federal judges sentence every federal case. They must calculate the Sentencing Guidelines range, which is advisory, and must impose any mandatory minimum the statute requires unless an exception applies. In courts-martial, the accused could choose sentencing by members until the rules changed. For cases in which every guilty finding is for an offense committed after December 27, 2023, a military judge sentences alone, within sentencing parameters. Courts-martial tried in 2024 and later include both old-rule and new-rule cases, and the data cannot tell them apart.
Time periods. Federal numbers are by federal fiscal year (October 1 to September 30), based on the sentencing date. The military numbers are by trial date. Neither source has the date of the offense, so a change in law shows up in either data set gradually.
How life sentences and "time served" are counted. In the federal numbers, a life sentence is counted as 470 months, and any other sentence longer than 470 months is counted as just under 470 months. A sentence of "time served" is counted as one day (0.03 months). Averages are affected by these rules; medians much less.
Related Analysis
- Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System (the background article)
- Federal Prosecution Analysis (all federal posts)
- How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built (sources and method)
- §2A2.3 Assault: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- §2A2.3 Assault: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2023 (previous or next fiscal year)
- §2A2.3 Assault: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2025 (previous or next fiscal year)
- How Often Federal Judges Sentence Outside the Guideline Range
- Mandatory Minimums: How Many Federal Sentences Are Set by Congress
- U.S. Sentencing Commission, Individual Offender Datafiles (source)
- Federal Judicial Center, Integrated Database (criminal defendants) (source)
About the author. Jocelyn C. Stewart is a retired Army JAG with more than 24 years of trying courts-martial and more than 200 jury trials. She hosts Where All The Bodies Are Buried and runs the Law Office of Jocelyn C. Stewart. This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.