Incarceration and Immigrants: Understanding Sentencing Differences across these Groups

• In Event: Violence and Justice in Racial and Immigrant Communities

Abstract

In the United States, the recent increase in immigrant populations has renewed public and political interest in the societal costs associated with these immigrant groups. Recent research has focused particular attention on understanding the effect of immigration and criminal offending and social control efforts. Although there has been significant attention devoted toward understanding these relationships few studies have specifically explored whether sentencing patterns vary across immigrant groups. Using Florida Sentencing Guideline data from 2000 -2010, the purpose of the current study is to explore the variations in sentencing outcomes across different immigrant groups. This research builds on prior sentencing literature by extending the analyses beyond the Black-White divide to include immigrant groups.

Author

• Malisa Nneka Neptune, Florida State University