§2G1.1 Promoting a Commercial Sex Act or Prohibited Sexual Conduct with an Individual Other than a Minor: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2022
The median prison term under §2G1.1 was 79 months (6.6 years) in fiscal year 2022, which was higher than the 30 months in fiscal year 2021. A total of 68 people were sentenced, and 90% pleaded guilty. A mandatory minimum applied to 25% of the group.
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In brief: The median prison term under §2G1.1 was 79 months (6.6 years) in fiscal year 2022, which was higher than the 30 months in fiscal year 2021. A total of 68 people were sentenced, and 90% pleaded guilty. A mandatory minimum applied to 25% of the group.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 68 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2022. 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 Higher Median Prison Term in Fiscal Year 2022
The Guidelines Manual title for §2G1.1 is "Promoting a Commercial Sex Act or Prohibited Sexual Conduct with an Individual Other than a Minor." The U.S. Sentencing Commission recorded 68 people in fiscal year 2022 whose primary guideline was §2G1.1.
The median prison term among those sent to prison was 79 months (6.6 years). The fiscal year 2021 median was 30 months, and the next year, fiscal year 2023, had a median of 84 months. The median for all fiscal years 2016 to 2025 was 33 months.
A quarter of the people received 180 months or more, and a quarter received 24.8 months or less. These are terms imposed, not time served. The records do not show why the median was higher in this year than in the earlier years in the table.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 70 | 24 months | 96% |
| 2017 | 72 | 27 months | 93% |
| 2018 | 80 | 27 months | 89% |
| 2019 | 82 | 27 months | 94% |
| 2020 | 38 | 27 months | 89% |
| 2021 | 58 | 30 months | 95% |
| 2022 | 68 | 79 months | 90% |
| 2023 | 46 | 84 months | 93% |
| 2024 | 56 | 60 months | 89% |
| 2025 | 42 | 75 months | 88% |
Who Received Prison and Who Received Probation
Prison terms went to 62 of the 68 people (91%). Probation only, with no prison or other confinement, went to 6 (9%).
Supervised release after prison was ordered for 62 people (91%). The median term was 60 months, and 5 people (7%) received supervised release for life.
Mandatory Minimums and the Guideline Range
A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 17 of the 68 people with that information recorded (25%).
Sentences within the range were 38% (26). Sentences below the range at the government's request were 31% (21), and below the range without a request were 22% (15). Above the range were 9% (6).
The within-range share for all years under this guideline was 41%, and for everyone sentenced in fiscal year 2022 it was 42%.
Plea Agreements and Trials
A total of 61 of the 68 people (90%) pleaded guilty, and 7 were convicted after a trial. Among guilty pleas, 97% had a written plea agreement and 3% were straight pleas.
The median prison term was 60 months after a guilty plea and 276 months after a trial. The trial group has 7 people, so the figure describes a small number of cases.
Offense Type, Fines, and Criminal History
The Commission's offense types for these cases were Sexual Abuse for 34 people and Commercialized Vice for 34.
A fine was ordered for 8 people (12%), and restitution for 25 (37%).
Criminal history placed 43% in the lowest category (Category I) and 18% in the highest (Category VI). Court-martial records have no criminal history field.
Boundaries of This Post
Across every guideline in fiscal year 2022, 64,142 people were sentenced, with a median prison term of 30 months. The fiscal year ran from October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2022.
The data covers only people convicted and sentenced. There is no close court-martial counterpart for this guideline in the approved crosswalk, so this post reports federal numbers on their own.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2022 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2G1.1 (68), 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)
- §2G1.1 Promoting a Commercial Sex Act or Prohibited Sexual Conduct with an Individual Other than a Minor: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- §2G1.1 Promoting a Commercial Sex Act or Prohibited Sexual Conduct with an Individual Other than a Minor: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2021 (previous or next fiscal year)
- §2G1.1 Promoting a Commercial Sex Act or Prohibited Sexual Conduct with an Individual Other than a Minor: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2023 (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.