Sentencing guidelines exist in many jurisdictions to establish a rationale for sentencing and to prescribe major factors that should be considered in sentencing. Aims of sentencing guidelines are to make sentencing decisions more consistent and to introduce explicit policymaking into the sentencing process. Minnesota became the first State to adopt numerical sentencing guidelines in 1980. Federal sentencing guidelines have been in effect since 1987. Just deserts, utilitarian, and preventive aspects of Minnesota's sentencing guidelines are discussed, as well as the focus of Federal sentencing guidelines on criminal records. Purposes of punishment and penal objectives of sentencing guidelines are considered, and conditional sentences and sentencing reform are examined. Notes and figures