The findings indicate that substantial variation exists in the probability of both prosecutor-initiated substantial assistance departures and judge-initiated downward departures. This variation is accounted for, in part, by organizational court contexts, such as caseload pressures, and by environmental considerations, such as the racial composition of the district. Additional evidence suggests that individual trial penalties and race disparities are conditioned by aggregate court contexts. The work notes that recent scholarship on criminal punishments has increasingly highlighted the importance of courtroom social contexts; the current study examined interdistrict variations in the application of downward departures from the Federal sentencing guidelines. Drawing on interviews with Federal justice personnel, this article concludes with a discussion of future directions for research on Federal guidelines departures. The study combined recent data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission with aggregate data on Federal districts. The data covered 4 (Federal) fiscal years from 1997 to 2000 and included information from presentence reports, court orders, and reports on sentence hearings in the 89 Federal judicial districts which provided a sample of 169,561 criminal cases. Secondary sources included Uniform Crime Reports, census data, Bureau of Justice Statistics Sourcebooks, and Federal Court Management Statistics. Tables, references, and appendix