§2B3.1 Robbery: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2016
In fiscal year 2016, the median prison term for the 91 people convicted at trial under §2B3.1 was 230 months, compared with 84 months after a guilty plea. The Commission counted 1,582 people sentenced under this guideline, and the overall median prison term was 87 months. A mandatory minimum applied
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Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › §2B3.1 Robbery › §2B3.1: FY2016
In brief: In fiscal year 2016, the median prison term for the 91 people convicted at trial under §2B3.1 was 230 months, compared with 84 months after a guilty plea. The Commission counted 1,582 people sentenced under this guideline, and the overall median prison term was 87 months. A mandatory minimum applied to 35%.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 1,582 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2016. 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.
Trial and Plea Sentences Under the Robbery Guideline
Of the 1,582 people sentenced, 1,491 (94%) pleaded guilty. The other 91 were convicted after a trial.
The median prison term after a plea was 84 months. After a trial it was 230 months, based on all 91 people convicted at trial and sent to prison.
The comparison is between groups of people. The records do not show how the cases differed in facts, so the gap cannot be attributed to the trial itself.
Among those who pleaded guilty, 86% had a written plea agreement, and 13% did not.
Mandatory Minimums
A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 555 of the 1,582 people with that information recorded. That is 35%.
A mandatory minimum is a floor set by statute. The Commission's counts do not show which cases had a floor that changed the sentence.
Overall Prison Terms
The Commission lists 1,565 people (99%) with a prison term. Probation only, with no prison or other confinement, was given to 11 people (less than 1%). A life sentence went to 4 people.
The median prison term was 87 months, or 7.2 years. A quarter of those sent to prison received 144 months or more, and a quarter received 49 months or less. These are terms imposed, not time served.
Position Against the Guideline Range
Range information was recorded for 1,581 people. A sentence within the range went to 45% (715). A sentence below the range at the government's request went to 26% (408). Below the range without such a request: 22% (355). Above the range: 7% (103).
Restitution, Supervised Release, and Criminal History
Restitution was ordered for 1,123 people (71%), and a fine for 35 (2%). Supervised release followed prison for 1,551 people (98%), with a median term of 36 months.
In criminal history, 25% of the people were in category I, the lowest, and 22% were in category VI, the highest. Court-martial records have no criminal history field.
The Guideline in Wider Context
The Guidelines Manual titles §2B3.1 simply "Robbery," and the Commission uses the same label for its offense type. The fiscal year ran from October 1, 2015 to September 30, 2016. The approved crosswalk has no close court-martial counterpart, so only federal numbers are given.
Across fiscal years 2016 to 2025, the guideline covers 14,661 people. In that period, 99% went to prison, the median was 92 months, 95% pleaded guilty, and 40% were within the guideline range. Fiscal year 2017 had 1,544 people and a median of 84 months.
In fiscal year 2016 across every guideline, 67,742 people were sentenced, with a median of 24 months. The table lists each year for §2B3.1.
Only convicted and sentenced people are counted, and the facts of each case are not in the data.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 1,582 | 87 months | 94% |
| 2017 | 1,544 | 84 months | 94% |
| 2018 | 1,691 | 90 months | 95% |
| 2019 | 1,805 | 95.5 months | 95% |
| 2020 | 1,297 | 87 months | 95% |
| 2021 | 1,290 | 93 months | 96% |
| 2022 | 1,424 | 97 months | 95% |
| 2023 | 1,490 | 96 months | 95% |
| 2024 | 1,305 | 96 months | 94% |
| 2025 | 1,233 | 92 months | 95% |
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2016 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2B3.1 (1,582), 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.
Mandatory minimum sentences. Many federal statutes on drugs, images of child exploitation, child sex abuse, and firearms carry mandatory minimum prison terms. The UCMJ has mandatory minimums only for a few offenses (a dishonorable discharge or dismissal for rape and sexual assault, and life for premeditated murder). Federal sentences for these offenses are partly set by Congress, not by the judge.
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)
- §2B3.1 Robbery: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- §2B3.1 Robbery: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2017 (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.