NCJ Number
225509
Journal
Journal of Crime &Justice Volume: 31 Issue: 2 Dated: 2008 Pages: 87-115
Date Published
2008
Length
29 pages
Annotation
Using data on a large sample of felony defendants in State courts of the Nation’s 75 most populous counties, this study examined the influence of court context and individual offense/offender characteristics on sentencing outcomes.
Abstract
The study found that those courts which processed relatively high volumes of minority defendants were more likely to issue sentences of incarceration by offense type. Those who pleaded guilty in such courts were also more likely to receive custodial sentences than their counterparts in courts that processed relatively few minority defendants. The custodial sentences were also longer in these courts for both offenders who pled guilty and those who went to trial. The difference in the conditioning effects of court caseload variables further indicate that courts processing relatively high volumes of minority defendants issued harsher sentences (more custodial and longer sentences) compared to courts processing high volumes of drug and violent offenders. This suggests that judges in courts whose caseloads have a high proportion of minority defendants tend to view race/ethnicity as a proxy for high risk of recidivism and threat to public safety, even more so than offense characteristics. Data were obtained from State Court Processing Statistics published by the Federal Bureau of Justice Statistics. The dependent variables were incarceration sentences and variation in sentence length. Independent variables pertained to the legal characteristics of the case (offense characteristics and criminal history); extra-legal variables (gender and race/ethnicity); and contextual variables (caseload characteristics by volume of minority offenders and proportion of drug or violent offenses processed). 4 tables, 18 notes, and 40 references