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The Effect of Race on Sentencing: A Re-Examination of An Unsettled Question

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Cassia Spohn ,
John Gruhl  and
Susan Welch
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Abstract

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Although the possible effect of race on sentencing decisions is a much-studied question, even recent studies suffer from methodological problems. This paper attempts to correct these problems by using a large number of cases and a large number of offenses, by dividing the sentencing decision into two separate decisions, by using an appropriate scale to measure sentence severity, by including controls for relevant legal and extra-legal factors, and by using multivariate analysis. Our major findings are that race does not have a direct effect on sentence severity, but that blacks are more likely than whites to be incarcerated.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , 1982 , pp. 71 - 88
Copyright
Copyright © 1982 The Law and Society Association.

Footnotes

*

We would like to thank the Research Council of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the University Committee on Research of the University of Nebraska-Omaha for funding for this project. We would also like to express our appreciation to Al DeBoer and Steven Henderson for their assistance with data management and to officials in the court administrator's office in “Metro City.” David R. Johnson provided excellent methodological advice, and Lorraine Davison, A. J. DePierre, and Mark Dawson ably assisted with the coding.

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