Punishment in “Indian Country:” Native American Disadvantage in Federal Sentencing

• In Event: Examining Sentencing Issues Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines

Abstract

A well-developed research tradition emphasizes how disvalued social statuses correlate with more severe criminal punishment, and a literature is developing on how contextual features shape punishment outcomes as well. With Native Americans, in contrast to other groups, there are further issues complicating the typical conceptualization of racial/ethnic disparity and punishment. Native Americans are U.S. citizens, but also tribal nationals who are subjected to colonialist authority across multiple institutional spheres, including criminal justice. These conditions give the criminal punishment of Native Americans in federal court unique connotations. We examine the punishment of Native Americans in federal court, focusing on districts with substantial Indian presence and/or reservations. We examine the influence of both individual-level factors and contextual features of federal districts and their relation to tribal justice organizations on federal punishment outcomes for Native American defendants. We first discuss the unique nature of Native American presence in federal courts. We then conceptualize our expectations concerning the sentencing of Indian defendants and its potential local contextual variation using the focal concerns and court communities frameworks. We present multilevel models of federal imprisonment and its length, as well as important federal sentencing guideline departures for Native American male and female defendants compared to others.

Authors

• Jeffery Ulmer, Pennsylvania State University

• Mindy S. Bradley, University of Arkansas