> ## 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 2023 - URL: https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2b3-3-blackmail-and-similar-forms-of-extortion-fy2023/ - Published: 2026-11-04T10:58:55.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-04T10:58:54.000Z - Description: In fiscal year 2023, 8 of the 10 people sentenced under §2B3.3 (80%) received a prison term, but the median prison term was 4.5 months, lower than the 13.9 months across all years of this guideline. The count is small, and one year should not be read as a trend. - 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: FY2023 **In brief:** In fiscal year 2023, 8 of the 10 people sentenced under §2B3.3 (80%) received a prison term, but the median prison term was 4.5 months, lower than the 13.9 months across all years of this guideline. The count is small, and one year should not be read as a trend. 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 10 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2023\. 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/). ## Many Prison Terms, but Short Ones In fiscal year 2023, 8 of the 10 people sentenced under §2B3.3 received a prison term. That is 80%. One person (10%) received probation only. The median prison term was 4.5 months. A quarter of those sent to prison received 17.3 months or more, and a quarter received 1.5 months or less. Over fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 61% of people sentenced under this guideline went to prison, and the median prison term was 13.9 months. The share sent to prison in fiscal year 2023 was higher than that, and the median was lower. ## Plea Compared With Trial, Based on One Case In all, 9 of the 10 people (90%) pleaded guilty, and 1 was convicted after a trial. After a guilty plea, the median prison term was 3 months. The person convicted at trial and sent to prison received 51 months. That gap is based on a single trial case and cannot be treated as a general finding. All 9 guilty pleas had a written plea agreement, and none was a straight plea. No mandatory minimum prison term applied to any of the 10 people with that information recorded. ## Position Against the Guideline Range Below the range at the government's request were 4 sentences (40%). Within the range were 3 (30%), and below the range without a government request were 3 (30%). None were above the range. For all years of §2B3.3, 46% of sentences were within the range. For all guidelines in fiscal year 2023, the figure was 42%. The within-range share here was lower than both. ## Supervised Release, Fines, and Restitution Supervised release after prison was ordered for 8 people (80%), with a median term of 12 months. A fine was ordered for 3 (30%). Restitution was ordered for 1 (10%). ## Criminal History In the lowest criminal history category I were 80% of the group, and none were in the highest category VI. Court-martial records have no criminal history field. ## Guideline Title, Offense Type, and Counting Rules The Guidelines Manual titles §2B3.3 "Blackmail and Similar Forms of Extortion". The U.S. Sentencing Commission places all 10 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 2023 ran from October 1, 2022 to September 30, 2023\. The data includes only people convicted and sentenced. ## Fiscal Year 2023 Among All Federal Cases For all guidelines in fiscal year 2023, 64,124 people were sentenced. The median prison term was 30 months, and 97% pleaded guilty. Under §2B3.3 across all years, 100 people were sentenced and 94% pleaded guilty. The table lists the 10 fiscal years for this guideline. Later years in it have counts of 6 and 5 people, which are also small. | 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 | ## What the Records Cannot Show The records do not show the facts of any case or the reasons for any sentence. The crosswalk has no close court-martial counterpart for this guideline, so only federal numbers are given. ### How We Counted Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2023 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2B3.3 (10), 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.