This paper presented in 1999 at the UNAFEI, 111th International Seminar on "The Role of the Police, Prosecution, and the Judiciary in the Changing Society" provided a historical glance at the creation of the United States Sentencing Guidelines. Historically, the sentencing rules or guidelines had been influenced by four objectives: (1) punishment; (2) incapacitation; (3) rehabilitation, and (4) deterrence. Over time one or another of these objectives has gained or diminished in their importance dependent upon public and political opinion. Federal sentencing reform can be traced back to 1966 and the establishment of the National Commission on Reform of Federal Criminal Law. This paper discussed Federal sentencing in its many stages and phases: (1) before and after the Federal sentencing guidelines went into effect on November 1, 1987; (2) pre-guidelines sentencing and how it became an impetus for reform; (3) how the Federal sentencing guidelines operate in practice; (4) the real and potential impacts of the Federal sentencing guidelines; and (5) the future of Federal sentencing.