Crack-ing Down on Black Drug Offenders? Testing for Interactions Among Offenders' Race, Drug Type, and Sentencing Strategy in Federal Drug Sentences

• NCJ Number: 194988
• Journal: Justice Quarterly Volume: 19 Issue: 1 Dated: March 2002 Pages: 1-35
• Author(s): Paula Kautt; Cassia Spohn
• Date Published: 2002
• Length: 35 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article argues that racial discrimination in sentencing for drugs has changed from overt to covert.

Abstract

Racial disparity in sentences for drug offenses has increased dramatically. Federal drug laws disproportionately affect racial minorities and research has uncovered racial variation in Federal sentencing outcomes for drug offenses that legally relevant factors do not explain. There were a number of explanations for racial variation in sentencing. There were five hypotheses to this study. The predictors of the length of a sentence would operate differently for white and Black drug offenders. The magnitudes of the effects of aggravating factors will be greater for Black defendants than for white defendants. The magnitudes of the effects of mitigating factors would be greater for white defendants than for Black defendants. The racial variations in the effects of the predictors of the length of sentences would differ for mandatory minimums drug crimes compared to guidelines drug crimes. And, finally, the racial variations in the effects of the predictors of the length of sentences will differ for mandatory minimums drug cases as compared to hybrid drug cases. A two-stage partitioning strategy was used. Federal drug-offense sentences were categorized into three groups: offenses that carried a mandatory minimums and received a minimum sentence, offenses that fell under a mandatory minimums statute but do not receive a minimum sentence (hybrid offenses), and offenses that were simple guidelines drug cases. Results indicated that the predictors of the length of sentences operated differently for white and Black defendants and for guidelines, mandatory minimums, and hybrid drug cases. There were more racial differences in the effects of the predictors for mandatory minimums cases than for hybrid or, especially, guidelines cases. It would appear that the more complex theoretical framework for explaining the persistence of racial disparity in Federal sentencing (i.e., the villain-victim thesis combined with causal attribution) better captures the process of Federal sentencing than does the simpler discretion-control thesis. 8 tables, 18 footnotes, 49 references