NCJ Number
228318
Journal
Women and Criminal Justice Volume: 19 Issue: 3 Dated: July-September 2009 Pages: 191-216
Date Published
July 2009
Length
26 pages
Annotation
This study analyzed the relationship between race/ethnicity and sentencing outcomes for female drug offenders in Florida.
Abstract
Results found that minority female drug offenders were disadvantaged at both the incarceration and sentence length decisions. Based on the results of the main effects models, it appears that perceptions of dangerousness associated with female offenders' race and ethnicity were incorporated into sentencing authorities' patterned responses. Hispanic and Black female drug offenders were considerably more likely than White female drug offenders to be sentenced to prison. Furthermore, it appears that in decisions of sentence length under the less structured Criminal Punishment Code (CPC) sentencing policy, race and ethnicity were important in the development of patterned responses. The main effects models also indicate that the effect of prior record on sentencing outcomes depended on the type of prior record. Female drug offenders with a prior record involving violent offenses may have been viewed as particularly dangerous. Results also seem to indicate that female drug offenders with a prior record of drug offending were viewed as more likely to recidivate and were therefore incarcerated to protect the community. Data were collected from the Florida Department of Corrections and consisted of records for 88,732 female drug offenders sentenced under the 1994 sentencing guidelines and 78,514 female drug offenders sentenced under the CPC between 1993 and 2003. Tables, notes, and references