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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
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