Locations of Disparity: The Aggregate Effects of Sentencing Practices for Racial Disproportionality in Imprisonment

• In Event: Race, Sentencing & Punishment

Abstract

A large body of research examines racial disparity in sentencing, yet we know little about how sentencing processes at the individual level contribute to the disproportionate imprisonment of blacks and Hispanic nationally. This paper explores one approach to bridging the gap between individual-level processes and macro-level outcomes, using National Corrections Reporting Program data on 659k state prison admissions in 26 states in 2000 and 2010. First, I estimate a three-level model predicting sentence length within and between counties and states. Sentence length and racial disparity each vary substantially between states and are strongly related to the presence of presumptive guidelines and determinate sentencing. Further, nearly 50% of the variance in racial disparity is between counties, implying that disparities are substantially affected by the decisions of local court actors. I then calculate and aggregate predicted sentence lengths by race-ethnicity, under various contingencies. The population effects of sentencing reflect the combined influence of state and county-level variation in average sentence severity, variation in racial disparities, and the geographic distributions of race and ethnicity between and within states. Specifically, the concentration of black offenders in the South, and urban areas, and Hispanics in the West, appear to mitigate the aggregate effects of sentencing disparity.

Author

• Rodney Engen, University of Arkansas