Gun Mandatory Minimums, Incarceration, and Racial Disparity

• In Event: Impact and Inequality in American Gun Laws

Abstract

While scholarly consensus has emerged that increased punishment of drug crimes (especially the use of mandatory minimum sentences for these crimes) was a key driver of incarceration rates over the late 20th century, research has largely ignored the effects of gun punishment on rates of incarceration. Although gun and drug punishments differ in many important ways, many of the social concerns that have eroded public support for the use of mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes--including race/class disproportionality, prosecutorial power and decision making, and social and economic costs of imprisonment--apply directly to the punishment of illegal gun possession. Making use of data from New York state, this study analyzes the effects of gun mandatory minimum laws on incarceration, providing crucial insight into the policy effects of these commonly used laws that aim to reduce violence, but perhaps at the cost of increasing incarceration and racial disproportionality.

Authors

• David Hureau, University at Albany, SUNY

• Theodore Wilson, University at Albany, SUNY