A Poverty Penalty: Examining the Effects of Socioeconomic Proxies in Misdemeanor Sentencing

• In Event: How Do Prosecutors Decide? Socioeconomic Factors, Race, and Prior Records

Abstract

Research on the implication of being a poor defendant in criminal case processing has been primarily focused on the defendant’s ability to post bail. Due to the lack of strong measures for defendants’ socioeconomic status (SES) in criminal justice datasets, direct analyses of the effect of poverty in sentencing is patchy. We employ five more traditional and less conventional SES proxies—(a) type of counsel, (b) neighborhood’s median household income, (c) conviction on low-level theft charges, (d) posting bail, and (e) age—to estimate the effects of poverty in sentencing among misdemeanor defendants in Florida. Findings suggest that these SES proxies exert strong yet distinct effects on the imposition of custodial sentences as well as time served sentences. While being poor increases the likelihood of pre-trial detention, the effect of poverty goes over and beyond the disadvantage triggered by detention. We argue that higher likelihood of receiving time served sentences among low-SES defendants raises the question of whether these defendants should have been detained first place. Implications of poverty penalty for fair administration of justice, public safety, and criminal justice expenditure are also discussed.

Authors

• Lin Liu, Florida International University

• Besiki Luka Kutateladze, Florida International University