In 1986 a questionnaire that included a simulation exercise was completed by 199 court practitioners in Montreal, Canada. The same questionnaire was completed approximately 2 years later by a group of 48 lawyers from the region of Marseille and Aix-en-Provence, France. The two samples were weighted to ensure a similar distribution of respondents from the various categories of professional activities. The principal task the respondents performed involved the determination of sentences for three cases in which the defendant was found guilty of the crime described. The findings show that in the proportion of custodial sentences and the average incarceration term, differences between the samples were small. Similarities dominated in the estimates of crime seriousness and the importance attached to various sentencing aims. 3 tables and 8 references