NCJ Number
221903
Journal
Criminal Justice Policy Review Volume: 19 Issue: 1 Dated: March 2008 Pages: 63-83
Date Published
March 2008
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This study explored the application of the habitual offender sentence enhancement for both male and female offenders in Florida from 1994 to 2002.
Abstract
The overall findings indicate that racial and ethnic sentence disparity exists when habitual-offender status is invoked in Florida. The results are quite similar to those of earlier studies. Even after improving the analytical technique used, updating the data, adding Hispanic offenders, and providing more comprehensive measures of prior record, racial and ethnic disparity in habitual-offender sentencing still exist. Race and ethnicity still matter for habitual-offender designations. This is particularly true for drug offenders and violent offenders. Therefore, habitual-offender statutes may simply be another tool for discriminatory decisionmaking. As with any policy, habitual-offender statutes can only maintain validity if they are implemented in a race-neutral manner. Although sentencing research has expanded over the past decade, very little has been published in the area of habitual-offender statutes. This study revisits and updates two of the few studies that focused on these sentencing enhancements and examined the application of the habitual-offender sentence enhancement for offenders in Florida. The results reported in this study also consider the effect of a major policy change on habitual-offender sentencing and provide more detailed controls for prior record. Tables, notes, and references