With the decline of the long-standing commitment to rehabilitation as the dominant consideration in sentencing, major new research attention sought to determine the bases of sentencing practice and to develop new approaches. These approaches have included the development of sentencing schedules to reflect 'just deserts,' attempts to enhance the deterrent and incapacitative effects of sentences, promulgation of appropriate penalties through sentencing guidelines, and the adoption of legislatively established determinate or mandatory-minimum sentences. In recent years, motivated by the pressure of severe prison congestion in most states, research has been directed at developing linking methods for accounting for the effect of sentencing policy on prison populations. This article reviews research in these areas and considers the ways in which they have influenced sentencing practice. (Author abstract)