Gender, Race, and Habitual Offender Sentencing in Florida

• NCJ Number: 181793
• Journal: Criminology Volume: 38 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2000 Pages: 263-280
• Author(s): Charles Crawford
• Editor(s): Robert J. Bursik Jr.
• Date Published: 2000
• Length: 18 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Earlier version of article presented at the 1988 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Criminology.

Annotation

This study explored the effects of race and gender on habitual offender sentencing in Florida using a sample of 1,103 female offenders admitted to the Florida Department of Corrections in fiscal year 1992-1993 who were eligible for sentencing under the habitual offender statute.

Abstract

Controlling for prior record, crime seriousness, crime type, and sentencing county contextual variables through logistic regression analysis, defendant race was found to be a relevant and statistically significant factor in the enhanced sentencing of female offenders. This factor was most noticeable with black female drug offenders and under structural contexts that were high, i.e., the percent of the black population, drug arrest rates, and violent crime rates. Race effects found with the sample of female offenders were often stronger than those reported in a 1998 study of 9,960 eligible male offenders in Florida. 22 references, 18 footnotes, and 6 tables