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Race and Sentence Severity: The Case of American Justice

NCJ Number
112332
Journal
Journal of Black Studies Volume: 18 Issue: 3 Dated: (March 1988) Pages: 273-281
Author(s)
J Sidanius
Date Published
1988
Length
9 pages
Annotation
Reanalysis of data presented by Uhlman (1979) seems to confirm the notion that pure racism accounts for a major portion of the observed correlation between race and punishment severity in the American criminal justice system.
Abstract
Uhlman attempted to determine whether or not blacks convicted of felony crimes received more severe sentences than whites, even when controlling for a large number of other factors. On the basis of a path analysis of a reduced model, he concluded that race did have a statistically significant and nontrivial effect on sentence severity. His reduced model, however, failed to consider the effect of plea bargaining. Defendants whose cases go to trial tend to receive more severe sentences than defenders who engage in plea bargaining. Whites tend to plea bargain to a greater extent than blacks. Also, path analysis does not permit determination of the statistical significance of an entire causal model. This study reanalyzes Uhlman's data using a more sophisticated analytic technique, a LISREL covariance structure analysis, incorporating the variable of plea bargaining into the reduced model. Findings indicate that blacks do receive more severe sentences than whites based solely on race. 2 figures, 1 note and 16 references.

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