Investigating the Assignment of Probation Conditions: Heterogeneity and the Role of Race and Ethnicity

• In Event: Innovative Scopes of Race in Sentencing Decisions

Abstract

Judges have considerable discretion as they assign the combination of conditions in probation sentences. Although probation is the most common sentence levied by the courts, it is rarely examined by both policymakers and scholars. The presents study seeks to investigate the assignment of probation sentencing packages, and to assess disparities by race and ethnicity. The study uses a data matching process which gives access to information that has previously been unavailable in most sentencing research. It links court documents from the Minnesota Trial Court Public Access website to official sentencing records from the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission for 3,031 adult males convicted of a felony in two urban counties. Using latent class analysis, the study will identify the discrete clusters of combinations of probation conditions, and investigate the effects of race and ethnicity on selection into probation and assignment to these clusters.

Author

• Anat Kimchi, University of Maryland