---
kind: "section"
citation: "18 U.S.C. § 3661"
title: "18"
title_heading: "Crimes and Criminal Procedure"
number: "3661"
heading: "Use of information for sentencing"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/18/3661"
units:
  - "Part II — Criminal Procedure"
  - "Chapter 232 — Miscellaneous Sentencing Provisions"
---

# §3661. Use of information for sentencing


No limitation shall be placed on the information concerning the background, character, and conduct of a person convicted of an [offense](/usc/18/3156.md?p=a-2) which a court of the United States may receive and consider for the purpose of imposing an appropriate sentence.


## Source credit

(Added Pub. L. 91–452, title X, § 1001(a), Oct. 15, 1970, 84 Stat. 951, § 3577; renumbered § 3661, Pub. L. 98–473, title II, § 212(a)(1), Oct. 12, 1984, 98 Stat. 1987.)

## Notes

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Short Title of 1990 Amendment

Pub. L. 101–421, § 1, Oct. 12, 1990, 104 Stat. 909, provided that: “This Act [amending provisions set out as a note under section 3672 of this title] may be cited as the ‘Drug and Alcohol Dependent Offenders Treatment Act of 1989’.”

### Short Title of 1986 Amendment

Pub. L. 99–570, title I, § 1861(a), Oct. 27, 1986, 100 Stat. 3207–53, provided that: “This section [amending sections 3672 and 4255 of this title, enacting provisions set out as a note under section 3672 of this title, and amending provisions set out as a note under section 4255 of this title] may be cited as the ‘Drug and Alcohol Dependent Offenders Treatment Act of 1986’.”