§2A3.4 Abusive Sexual Contact or Attempt to Commit Abusive Sexual Contact: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2018
In fiscal year 2018, 41 people were sentenced in federal court under guideline §2A3.4. Of those, 39 (95%) received a prison term, and the median prison term was 24 months (2 years). A total of 40 of the 41 (98%) pleaded guilty.
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In brief: In fiscal year 2018, 41 people were sentenced in federal court under guideline §2A3.4. Of those, 39 (95%) received a prison term, and the median prison term was 24 months (2 years). A total of 40 of the 41 (98%) pleaded guilty.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 41 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2018. 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.
Who Is Counted in the 2018 Numbers?
The U.S. Sentencing Commission counted 41 people whose primary guideline was §2A3.4, titled "Abusive Sexual Contact or Attempt to Commit Abusive Sexual Contact." The primary guideline is the one that set the offense level for the most serious count in the case.
Federal fiscal year 2018 ran from October 1, 2017 to September 30, 2018. The Commission's offense type for all 41 cases was Sexual Abuse.
The data covers only people who were convicted and sentenced. Acquittals and dismissals are not in it, so these numbers cannot say how many people were charged.
Prison Terms and Probation
Prison was the usual sentence. Of the 41 people, 39 (95%) received a prison term, and 1 (2%) received probation only, with no prison or other confinement.
The median prison term was 24 months. A quarter of those sent to prison received 36 months or more, and a quarter received 12 months or less. These are the terms imposed, not the time actually served.
Supervised release after prison was ordered for 38 people (93%). The median supervised release term was 60 months, and 7 people (17%) received supervised release for life.
Guilty Pleas and the One Trial
Of the 41 people, 40 (98%) pleaded guilty, and 1 was convicted after a trial. Among the guilty pleas, 98% had a written plea agreement and 3% were straight pleas with no agreement.
The median prison term after a guilty plea was 24 months. The median after a trial was 21 months, but that figure rests on 1 person, so it says nothing general about trials.
A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 0 of the 41 people with that information recorded.
How Sentences Compared With the Guideline Range
The guideline range is the sentencing range the court calculates before it decides on a sentence. In 18 cases (44%), the sentence was within the range.
In 12 cases (29%), the sentence was below the range at the government's request. In 5 cases (12%), it was below the range without a government request. In 6 cases (15%), it was above the range.
For comparison, 50% of all people sentenced under §2A3.4 in fiscal years 2016 to 2025 received a sentence within the range.
Fines, Restitution, and Criminal History
A fine was ordered for 1 person (2%), and restitution was ordered for 4 (10%). Criminal history category I, the lowest, applied to 63% of the group, and category VI, the highest, applied to 2%.
Court-martial records have no criminal history field, so this measure has no court-martial counterpart.
Context From Other Years and All Guidelines
Across fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 378 people were sentenced under §2A3.4. Of these, 93% went to prison, the median prison term was 24 months, and 91% pleaded guilty.
In fiscal year 2017, 38 people were sentenced under this guideline with a median prison term of 27 months. In fiscal year 2019, 44 people were sentenced with a median of 18 months. The median in 2018 was lower than 2017 and higher than 2019, and counts this small do not show a trend.
Across every guideline in fiscal year 2018, 69,425 people were sentenced. The median prison term was 24 months, 97% pleaded guilty, and 51% were sentenced within the range. The table below lists each fiscal year for §2A3.4.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 34 | 30 months | 91% |
| 2017 | 38 | 27 months | 97% |
| 2018 | 41 | 24 months | 98% |
| 2019 | 44 | 18 months | 93% |
| 2020 | 25 | 40.5 months | 88% |
| 2021 | 26 | 36 months | 81% |
| 2022 | 48 | 21 months | 92% |
| 2023 | 46 | 24 months | 91% |
| 2024 | 39 | 24 months | 82% |
| 2025 | 37 | 36 months | 89% |
Link to Article 120 and What the Records Cannot Show
The approved crosswalk pairs this guideline with Article 120 of the UCMJ. The comparison posts linked below cover the court-martial side.
With 41 people in one year, a few cases can move a percentage by several points. The records do not show the facts of any case, why a court chose a sentence, or how many people were charged but not convicted.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2018 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2A3.4 (41), 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)
- §2A3.4 Abusive Sexual Contact or Attempt to Commit Abusive Sexual Contact: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- §2A3.4 Abusive Sexual Contact or Attempt to Commit Abusive Sexual Contact: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2017 (previous or next fiscal year)
- §2A3.4 Abusive Sexual Contact or Attempt to Commit Abusive Sexual Contact: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2019 (previous or next fiscal year)
- How Often Federal Judges Sentence Outside the Guideline Range
- Mandatory Minimums: How Many Federal Sentences Are Set by Congress
- Fewer or More? Sexual Assault Charges at Army Courts-Martial, 2021–2025 (court-martial data)
- Article 120 Sentences in the Army: Confinement and Discharges, 2021–2025 (court-martial data)
- Fighting an Army Sexual Assault Charge: How Contested Cases Ended (court-martial data)
- When Army Accused Plead Guilty to Sexual Assault (court-martial data)
- Is Air Force Sexual Assault Prosecution Rising or Falling? Article 120, 2016–2025 (court-martial data)
- How Much Confinement for an Article 120 Conviction in the Air Force? (court-martial data)
- When Air Force Accused Plead Guilty to Sexual Assault (court-martial data)
- Is Navy-Marine Corps Sexual Assault Prosecution Rising or Falling? Article 120, 2017–2025 (court-martial data)
- Article 120 Sentences in the Navy-Marine Corps: Confinement and Discharges, 2017–2025 (court-martial data)
- Not Guilty Pleas in Navy-Marine Corps Article 120 Cases: What Happened at Trial (court-martial data)
- Guilty Pleas in Navy-Marine Corps Sexual Assault Cases: How Often, and What Came Next (court-martial data)
- Article 120 (Rape and Sexual Assault): Court-Martial Data and Trends (court-martial data)
- Article 120 UCMJ Explained by a Former Special Victim Prosecutor (law firm reference page)
- 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.