> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.bodiesburied.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # §2B3.3 Blackmail and Similar Forms of Extortion: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2016 - URL: https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2b3-3-blackmail-and-similar-forms-of-extortion-fy2016/ - Published: 2026-11-04T10:58:50.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-04T10:58:50.000Z - Description: In fiscal year 2016, 18 people were sentenced in federal court with §2B3.3 as the primary guideline, the largest yearly count for this guideline from 2016 to 2025. In all, 9 received a prison term and 9 received probation only. The median prison term was 12 months. - Author: Jocelyn C. Stewart - Tags: Understanding Trends, Federal [Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/) › [Federal Prosecution Analysis](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal/) › [§2B3.3 Blackmail and Similar Forms of Extortion](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2b3-3-blackmail-and-similar-forms-of-extortion/) › §2B3.3: FY2016 **In brief:** In fiscal year 2016, 18 people were sentenced in federal court with §2B3.3 as the primary guideline, the largest yearly count for this guideline from 2016 to 2025\. In all, 9 received a prison term and 9 received probation only. The median prison term was 12 months. Updated November 4, 2026 · Sources: U.S. Sentencing Commission and Federal Judicial Center, fiscal years 2016–2025 This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 18 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](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal/) series, which builds on [Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/military-sentencing-guidelines-federal-system/). How the numbers were built: [How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-data-methodology/). ## Prison and Probation Were Equally Common Of the 18 people sentenced under §2B3.3 in fiscal year 2016, 9 (50%) received a prison term. The other 9 (50%) received probation only, with no prison or other confinement. The median prison term for those sent to prison was 12 months. A quarter received 42 months or more, and a quarter received 5 months or less. The distance between the top and bottom figures is large, so the median describes only the middle of a varied group. Supervised release after prison was ordered for 9 people (50%), with a median term of 12 months. ## Guilty Pleas and Trials In all, 16 of the 18 people (89%) pleaded guilty. The remaining 2 people were convicted after a trial. The median prison term after a guilty plea was 10.5 months. After a trial it was 70 months, but that figure rests on 1 person convicted at trial and sent to prison. One person cannot show how plea and trial sentences generally compare. Among the guilty pleas, 81% had a written plea agreement and 19% were straight pleas with no agreement. No mandatory minimum prison term applied to any of the 18 people with that information recorded. ## Sentences Above and Below the Range Sentences were within the guideline range for 6 people (33%). They were below the range at the government's request for 7 (39%) and below the range without a government request for 3 (17%). Above the range were 2 (11%). Sentences above the range were a small group of 2 in this year, so they should not be read as a pattern. Across all years of §2B3.3, 46% of sentences were within the range. For all guidelines in fiscal year 2016, the share was 49%. ## Fines, Restitution, and Criminal History A fine was ordered for 1 person (6%). Restitution was ordered for 9 (50%). In the lowest criminal history category I were 67% of the group, and 0% were in the highest category VI. Court-martial records have no criminal history field. ## What §2B3.3 Covers and How the Cases Were Counted The Guidelines Manual titles §2B3.3 "Blackmail and Similar Forms of Extortion". The U.S. Sentencing Commission places all 18 cases in its Extortion/Racketeering offense type. A case counts when §2B3.3 was the primary guideline, meaning the one that set the offense level for the most serious count. Fiscal year 2016 ran from October 1, 2015 to September 30, 2016\. Only people who were convicted and sentenced are in the data. ## Fiscal Year 2016 Alongside the All-Years and All-Guidelines Numbers Across fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 100 people were sentenced under §2B3.3\. Of those, 61% went to prison, the median prison term was 13.9 months, and 94% pleaded guilty. Fiscal year 2016 had a lower share sent to prison and a lower median than those all-years figures. For every guideline in fiscal year 2016, 67,742 people were sentenced. The median prison term was 24 months, and 97% pleaded guilty. The table shows every year for §2B3.3. | Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty | | ----------- | ---------------- | ------------- | -------------- | | 2016 | 18 | 12 months | 89% | | 2017 | 6 | 10 months | 6 of 6 | | 2018 | 16 | 12 months | 94% | | 2019 | 11 | 15 months | 100% | | 2020 | 13 | 12 months | 100% | | 2021 | 10 | 13.7 months | 90% | | 2022 | 5 | 24 months | 5 of 5 | | 2023 | 10 | 4.5 months | 90% | | 2024 | 6 | 17.7 months | 6 of 6 | | 2025 | 5 | 21.4 months | 4 of 5 | ## Limits of the Records The records give no facts about the conduct in any case. The crosswalk has no close court-martial counterpart for this guideline, so these are federal numbers on their own. ### How We Counted Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2016 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2B3.3 (18), 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](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/military-sentencing-guidelines-federal-system/) (the background article) - [Federal Prosecution Analysis](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal/) (all federal posts) - [How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-data-methodology/) (sources and method) - [§2B3.3 Blackmail and Similar Forms of Extortion: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2b3-3-blackmail-and-similar-forms-of-extortion/) (overview) - [How Often Federal Judges Sentence Outside the Guideline Range](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-sentences-outside-guideline-range/) - [Mandatory Minimums: How Many Federal Sentences Are Set by Congress](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-mandatory-minimum-sentences/) - [U.S. Sentencing Commission, Individual Offender Datafiles](https://www.ussc.gov/research/datafiles/commission-datafiles?ref=bodiesburied.com) (source) - [Federal Judicial Center, Integrated Database (criminal defendants)](https://www.fjc.gov/research/idb?ref=bodiesburied.com) (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](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/?ref=bodiesburied.com). This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.