Sentencing Disparities in Criminal Justice

• This study examines whether young Black or Hispanic males experience an "incarceration penalty" compared to other demographic groups in sentencing patterns.
• Racial, ethnic, age, and sex differences in incarceration rates are well-known in the United States.
• Black and Hispanic incarceration rates are six to eight times higher than White offenders, and males are 14 times more likely to be incarcerated than women.
• This research explores how race, ethnicity, age, and sex influence incarceration decisions across nine offense categories using Florida felony conviction data from 2000-2006.
• The study finds that legally relevant factors significantly influence incarceration decisions, with young Black males being most disadvantaged.
• Keywords include race/ethnicity, sentencing, sentencing guidelines, and gender.

Sentencing Disparities and Guidelines

• Since the early 1980s, many states have implemented sentencing guidelines to create certainty, reduce unwarranted disparity, and increase transparency.
• Despite these efforts, race, ethnic, age, and sex disparities in incarceration persist, with higher rates for men, Blacks, and Hispanics.
• In 2007 US men were incarcerated at a rate 14 times higher than that of women.
• Incarceration rate for Black males between 25 and 29 was 7 times of that of White males and the rate for Hispanic males of the same age was 2 times that of White males.
• Scholars question whether these disparities stem from differential involvement in crime or differential treatment during sentencing.
• Some argue disparities reflect unequal distribution of harm and danger definitions across racial, ethnic, age, and sex categories.
• This research examines the effects of race, Hispanic ethnicity, age, and sex on incarceration decisions
• It questions whether young Black and Hispanic males face an incarceration "penalty" for specific offenses, using Florida felony conviction data from 2000-2006 (N = 501,027).

Extending Prior Research

• This study includes Hispanics and Blacks to see if young Hispanic males are as likely as young Black males to be sentenced to to jail and/or prison.
• It examines jail and prison effects across nine specific crime types for a more nuanced analysis of how crime types impact incarceration decisions.
• The importance of examining the jail and prison sentence components separately is emphasized.
• The combined effects of race, ethnicity, age, and gender on incarceration decisions is explored using a three-category dependent variable.

Focal Concerns Framework

• The relationship between criminal sentencing and the defendant's race, ethnicity, sex, and age is conceptualized using the "focal concerns" framework.
• This framework emphasizes legal and extra-legal factors in sentencing, mainly blameworthiness, community protection, and practical constraints.

Blameworthiness, Community Protection, and Practical Constraints

• Blameworthiness focuses on the defendant's culpability and the injury associated with the crime ensuring fair punishment.
• Community protection is concerned with future criminality and the danger a defendant poses to the community.
• Practical constraints and consequences are concerns at both the organizational and individual levels.
• Judges make assessments about the likelihood of future offending with incomplete information and may rely on attributional stereotypes linked to offender characteristics.
• Studies show young Black males are stereotyped as more blame-worthy.
• Practical constraints include ensuring an orderly flow of cases through the court system and considering the impact on jail and prison capacities.

Influence of Extra-Legal Considerations

• While legal factors like offense type, severity, and prior record are strong predictors of punishment, the focal concerns perspective suggests extra-legal factors can also affect sentencing.
• Minority offenders are often sanctioned more harshly due to the perception of being more threatening.
• Judges view young Black men as more dangerous, committed to street life, and less reformable.

Race, Hispanic Ethnicity, Age, Sex, and Incarceration

• Blacks and Hispanics are more disadvantaged than Whites
• Black defendants in Pennsylvania were more likely to be incarcerated than Whites for both drug and non-drug offenses.
• Hispanics are also more likely than Whites to be incarcerated, with a harsher overall sentencing experience than Blacks.
• Whites are most advantaged during the sentencing decision, racial and ethnic disparities have declined since sentencing guidelines implementation in Pennsylvania.
• Men are more disadvantaged than women, perceived as more dangerous to the community.
• Age is inversely related to the prospect of being incarcerated.
• The probability of incarceration increased with age until around 30 and declined.
• Young Black males are frequently perceived as "the dangerous class" and heavily impacted by stereotyping.
• Black, young, and male demographics are more likely to receive harsher sentences.
• Young Black and Hispanic defendants were more likely than middle-aged White offenders to be sentenced to prison.

Perceptions Across Crime Type

• Perceptions of criminality differ across races (particularly in discourse regarding drugs and violence), and are often associated with young Black and Hispanic males.
• Stereotypes about young Black and Hispanic males, reinforce the perception of future criminality, reinforcing the notion that they are dangerous and deserve increased punishment.
• Blacks and Hispanics were more disadvantaged than Whites, with Hispanics having greater odds of incarceration than both Blacks and Whites.
• This pattern was substantially stronger in both studies for drug crimes than for nondrug crimes.

Influence of Offense Severity

• Extra-legal factors like race, ethnicity, age, and sex on incarceration may influenced by offense severity.
• Liberation hypothesis suggests that judicial decision-making is more strongly influenced by the seriousness of the crime when more severe.
• Judges may rely on nonlegal factors when making incarceration decisions, with less severe offenses.

Summary of Expectations

• Black, Hispanic, and male defendants are expected to be more likely to be incarcerated than White and female defendants, considering legally relevant factors.
• The effects for age are expected to be curvilinear.
• It is expected that the effects of race and ethnicity will be stronger for males than for females.
• Expect that young Black and Hispanic males greater odds of being sentenced to jail or prison across all nine offense categories
• Expect that young Black and Hispanic males will be most disadvantaged across crime types.
• The odds of their incarceration will be greater for for drug crimes or less serious offenses where judges are less constrained by the law.
• No similar disparities are expected to be observes among for White, Black, and Hispanic females.

Data and Methods

• Data is taken from the Florida Department of Corrections (DOC) Sentencing Guidelines database and its Offender-Based Information System (OBIS).
• Analysis includes 501,027 defendants convicted and sentenced in Florida from 2000 to 2006.
• Dependent variable includes three decision categories: jail, prison, and community supervision.
• Effects of jail and prison sentences are empirically examined separately.
• Florida median jail sentence is about 90 days, compared to 33 months prison term.
• The focus is on combined effects of age, sex, race/ethnicity, and the anticipated incarceration penalty paid by young Black and young Hispanic males.
• Age at sentencing is measured continuously.
• Race, ethnicity, and sex are non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic, and male measured as "yes or no".
• Characteristics for the defendant and the offense, current offense, prior offense, and other associated characteristics with sentence are controlled for when evaluating sentence severity.
• Controlling for sentencing year and the judicial circuit in which the defendant was convicted.
• Nine dummy variables are used to measure current offense type, based on the FBI's UCR index crime categories.
• Current offense seriousness is the Florida sentencing guideline points associated with the offense for which the defendant was convicted.
• Prior record is measured in three ways (a) the sentencing points guidelines points with the defendant's prior record (b) if the defendant has been sentenced to prison and (c) whether the defendant has had a history of community sentence.

Florida Sentencing Guidelines

• Florida's scoring system is one of the most comprehensive and discriminating measures of crime seriousness available for research
• Crime seriousness is measured by assigning sentencing guideline points, additional offenses at conviction, victim injury etc.
• A score greater than 44 points is assigned to sentences with a guideline recommending prison.
• A dichotomous measure of crime severity is used that is called “scored to prison".
• Additional measure of the sentencing event is added to the equation, whether or not the defendant pleads "guilty" or goes to "trial".
• The likelihood of two incarceration decisions-jail and prison, is is examined and assessed for defendants across nine offense categories in order to comparatively assess the incarceration penalty that young Black and Hispanic males may pay when sentenced for specific types of crime.

Findings

• Outcomes of the multinomial logistic regression model measuring age sex race and ethnicity with the decision to sentence the defendant to jail or prison is shared.
• Dummy variables for primary offense type, sentencing year is included.
• Findings are consistent with prior research with Black's more likely to be sent to jail and prison.
• Males more likely to be sentenced to prison in general as compared to women.
• Even after controlling for legally relevant factors, being Hispanic increases the odds of a prison sentence by 23 percent.
• Defendants who are being sentenced to prison were five times more likely to be scored to prison.
• The results indicate the largest effect on the odds of receiving a hail sentence are of drug crimes are the largest effect
• Defendents convicted of drug crimes are less likely to be sentenced to prison.
• Finding is supportive of the the hypothesis that young Black males, pay incarceration penalty, even after controlling for legally relevant and legally relevant factors.
• In a comparative insatnce, young Black Males are less likely than others to be sentenced to jail as compared to all other race/age/gender categories.
• Young black Males have a higher probability of being snetenced to prison than all other groups

Incarceration Across Offense Types

• Incarceration for age, race and sex (specifically for young Black and Hispanic males) examined across nine offense types
• The only prior research to examine the crime-specific effects of age, race, and sex on the decision to incarcerate was reported by Steffensmeier et al. (1998).
• Black females have a greater liklihood of being sent to jail than either Hispanics or Whites for each of the seven crimes.
• For drug crimes, the young Black male disadvantage is both strong and consistent.
• In the likelihood of prison incarceration is significantly greater for young Black males related to burglary, drug possession, aggravated assault and drug sale/trafficking drug crimes

Explanations and Limitations

• Severity of crime is related with the the level of sentencing which in turn drives disparities
• Findings support the liberation hypothesis
• Study lacks information on charging decisions
• Study limited by lac of information on employment, socioeconomics or familial resposnibilites.
• It is known that Young Black males make up the most of the prison population which contributes to the racial disparity in sentencing.

Key Stats

• 3,161 Black male prisoners per 100,000 Black males in the United States.
• Among White males 723 prisoners per 100,000.
• Hispanic male prison populations are not as large as Black males but are still incarcerated at a rate double that of White males (1,632 per 100,000 Hispanic males).

Explore research on sentencing disparities related to defendant's sex, age, race, and ethnicity. Examine the perceived threats and 'punishment costs' associated with specific demographics in the criminal justice system. Understand how these factors influence incarceration likelihood.