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Detecting Sentencing Disparity - Some Problems and Evidence

NCJ Number
76188
Journal
American Journal of Sociology Volume: 86 Issue: 4 Dated: (January 1981) Pages: 869-880
Author(s)
R J Thompson; M T Zingraff
Date Published
1981
Length
12 pages
Annotation
Major methodological and conceptual problems inherent in sentencing disparity research are identified, and an empirical analysis of the racial disparity argument for the years 1969, 1973, and 1977 is presented.
Abstract
The past decade has produced an extensive and methodologically sophisticated array of empirical studies that assess the degree to which extra-legal variables influence decisionmaking in the criminal court. These studies, however, have failed to provide consistent findings on the existence of discrimination in criminal sentencing. Inconsistent findings could be the result of contextual and methodological peculiarities. Contextual factors which might account for dissimilar findings are variation as a function of changes over time, variation as a function of jurisdiction, variation as a function of judge, variation as a function of type of decision, and variation as a function of the victim-defendant relationship. Inattention to contextual factors will generally produce findings of no disparity. The empirical analysis of the racial disparity argument for the years 1969, 1973, and 1977 involved the examination of data on all males sentenced in one southeastern State to active sentences for armed robbery during these 3 years (samples of 251, 441, and 502 respectively). The data analysis addressed the contextual factors of time, jurisdiction, and type of decision. When data from all 3 years are combined, only the prior incarcerations variable is found to have an effect on sentence length. When the data are disaggregated by year, however, both prior incarcerations and race significantly influence sentence length for 1977, with blacks receiving the most severe sentences. Tabular data, footnotes, and 32 references are provided.