The Intervening Mechanisms of Discretion: Exploring the Relationship between Defendant Characteristics and Sentence Outcomes In Federal District Courts

• In Event: Sentencing Disparities in U.S. Federal Courts

Abstract

Research on federal sentencing provides inconsistent finding about the effect of defendant characteristics on length of imprisonment. Previous research has explored this relationship primarily by estimating only direct effects of defendant’s race/ethnicity and gender on severity of punishment. In order to pursue this relationship more fully, I empirically estimate the direct, indirect, and total effects of the defendant characteristics on sentence outcomes. The structural equation models estimated specify mechanisms of judicial and prosecutorial discretion as intervening variables in the relationship between defendant characteristics and length of imprisonment in federal district courts.

Author

• Celesta A. Albonetti, University of Iowa