Community-Level Influences on the Sentencing of Convicted Sex Offenders

• In Event: Advances in Sex Offense Policy Research: Sex Offender Sentencing

Abstract

Although sentencing research has explored how contextual factors (e.g., court characteristics, community composition) affect punishment outcomes, the role of these factors in the sentencing of convicted sex offenders is not well understood. This paper uses hierarchical generalized linear models and linear quantile mixed models to examine whether contextual factors influence the likelihood of incarceration and sentence length for sex offenders convicted under state sentencing guidelines. The goals of this paper are to determine how traditional second-level sentencing indicators predict these outcomes, how sex offender specific indicators (e.g., victim populations, political competition, religiosity) predict variation, and whether these effects vary meaningfully across sex and violent offenders. Theoretical and practical implications will be discussed.

Authors

• Michael Cassidy, Niagara University

• Jason Rydberg, University of Massachusetts Lowell

• Kelly M. Socia, University of Massachusetts Lowell