Ethnicity and Sentencing Outcomes in U.S. Federal Courts: Who is Punished More Harshly?

By D. Steffensmeier, Stephen Demuth. American Sociological Review, 2000

671 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Using federal court data collected by the U.S. Sentencing Commission for the years 1993–1996, this study examines racial/ethnic differences-white versus black versus white-Hispanic versus black-Hispanic—in sentencing outcomes and criteria under the federal sentencing guidelines. Regression analyses of incarceration and term-length decisions reveal considerable judicial consistency in the use of sentencing criteria for all defendants; however, important racial/ethnic disparities in sentencing emerge. Consistent with theoretical hypotheses, the authors find that ethnicity has a small to moderate effect on sentencing outcomes that favors white defendants and penalizes Hispanic defendants; black defendants are in an intermediate position. Hispanic drug offenders are most at risk of receiving the harshest penalties, and their harsher treatment is most pronounced in prosecutor-controlled guidelines departure cases. These findings highlight both a classic organizational tension noted by Weber and a fundamental dilemma in policy efforts to structure sentencing processes (formal rationality) while allowing for judicial and prosecutorial discretion (substantive rationality). The findings also broaden our view of the continuing significance of race in American society—as a matter confronting not only blacks but also Hispanics and perhaps other ethnic groups as well.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/70914dbc1525b12362ab07ebbb856a29e23f5cdb

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Citations in the corpus

The Failure of Race Neutral Policies: How Mandatory Terms and Sentencing Enhancements Contribute to Mass Racialized Incarceration (2011, background): “…have examined the effects of these policies on racial disparities in punishment outcomes (Crawford, 2000; Crawford et al., 1998; Engen et al., 2003; Farrell, 2003; Kautt & Spohn, 2002; Steffensmeier & Demuth, 2000, 2001; Ulmer, 2005; Ulmer & Kramer, 1998; Ulmer et al., 2007; Vincent & Hofer, 1994).”
White female victims and death penalty disparity research (2004, background): “Recent empirical research has identified the importance of three "focal concerns" in criminal justice decision making (e.g., Steffensmeier, Ulmer, & Kramer, 1998; Steffensmeier & Demuth, 2000).”
A Multilevel Test of Minority Threat Effects on Sentencing (2010, background): “A fruitful line of inquiry would be to connect the minority threat perspective with other related theories, including the focal concerns per spective (Steffensmeier et al. 1998; Steffensmeier and Demuth 2000), the race-out-of-place perspective (Novak and Chamlin 2008), and uncertainty avoidance theo”
AN ANALYSIS OF PAROLE DECISION MAKING USING A SAMPLE OF SEX OFFENDERS: A FOCAL CONCERNS (2006, background): “The failure to detect a race effect is surprising given prior research (Bridges and Crutchfield, 1988; Steffensmeier and Demuth, 2000, 2001; Ulmer and Johnson, 2004), which suggests that decision makers perceive minority males as unique threats to the community.”
A Multiple Models Approach to Assessing Recidivism Risk (2002, methodology): “According to Steffensmeier and Demuth (2000), judges’ assessments of offenders’ future behavior (dangerousness, recidivism) are based on attributions predicated on the nature of the offense (e.g., violent, property, drug), case information, the offender’s criminal history, and also perhaps, on…”
A Multilevel Analysis of Community Effects on Criminal Sentencing (2005, background): “…and other theoretical perspectives, has become one of the dominant frameworks used by researchers to develop and test hypotheses related to sentencing (e.g., Albonetti, 1986, 1991, 1997, 1998; Steffensmeier & Demuth, 2000, 2001; Steffensmeier et al., 1993, 1998; Ulmer, 1997; Ulmer & Johnson, 2004).”
Prosecutorial Discretion: An Examination of Substantial Assistance Departures in Federal Crack‐Cocaine and Powder‐Cocaine Cases (2007, background): “Among those who did receive a departure for substantial assistance, the sentence discount that Blacks and Hispanics received was less than the discount that Whites received (Maxfield & Kramer, 1998; see also Steffensmeier & Demuth, 2000).”