NCJ Number
112740
Date Published
1988
Length
30 pages
Annotation
This replication of an earlier Rand study of sentencing disparity in California analyzed data on 11,553 offenders convicted of assault, robbery, burglary, theft, forgery, or drug crimes in 1980 following full implementation of the 1977 Determinate Sentencing Act (DSA).
Abstract
The earlier study indicated that race affected certain sentencing decisions in the State. The present results, based on a combination of defendant and crime characteristics and criminal justice processing variables, indicate that it is possible to predict with about 80-percent accuracy whether an offender would be given probation or sentenced to prison for the crimes examined. Adding race to the prediction equation for a given crime type did not improve accuracy, nor was race related to the predicted sentence. Thus, the failure or race to contribute to predictive accuracy did not stem from any correlation with the variables that did predict outcomes. Race also was not related to the length of the prison term imposed. These findings, in contrast to those obtained earlier, suggest that the DSA may foster racial equity in sentencing. Appendixes provide additional methodological and statistical data. Tables, figures, and 16 references. (Author abstract modified)