WASHINGTON — Federal judges across the nation are bearing criminal case­­l­oads that vary widely in size, sometimes even among judges in the same courthouse, according to a study released Sunday.

The study by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, or TRAC, at Syracuse University found three courthouses where the judge with the largest criminal case­load had sentenced more than twice the number of defendants as the judge with the smallest caseload from October 2006 through July 2012. They were Los Angeles; Beaumont, Texas; and Camden, N.J.