Social Context and Sentencing Disparity Revisited: Effects of Race/Ethnicity and Skin Tone Across Court Communities

• In Event: 033 - Section on Crime, Law, and Deviance Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 07. Inequality and Crime 1

Abstract

Over the past decade there has been a flurry of research on how characteristics of court communities shape racial/ethnic disparities in sentencing. Using contemporary (2008-2012) sentencing data from Pennsylvania our study builds on prior research on social context and racial disparities in sentencing by (1) examining court-context effects amid a period of important demographic and social changes; (2) using more nuanced measures of court-context, including refined measures of racial/ethnic threat; (3) extending our conceptualization of race to consider also the effects of “skin tone” on sentencing outcomes; and (4) examining time served as a unique punishment outcome. Preliminary findings suggest that (a) Blacks and darker-skinned defendants receive harsher punishments, (b) certain features of court communities condition the influence of race and skin tone on sentencing, (c) however; in general markers of threat do not consistently influence how racial minorities and defendants with darker skin are sentenced. The implications of these findings and steps to improve the current study our discussed.

Authors

• Noah Painter-Davis

• Christopher J. Lyons, University of New Mexico